ASTANA: Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning Thursday after a passenger jet from the flag carrier crashed in western Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing 38 of the 67 people onboard.
The Embraer 190 aircraft was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia, but instead diverted far off course across the Caspian Sea. It crashed Wednesday near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
An investigation into the causes of the crash is underway, but some aviation and military experts said the plane may have been accidentally shot by Russian air defence systems as it was flying in an area where Ukrainian drone activity had been reported.
Officials condemned “speculation” about what happened.
“We need to await the end of the investigation,“ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Kazakh Senate speaker Maulen Ashimbayev was quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying it was “not possible” to say what may have damaged the plane.
“Real experts are looking at all this and they will make their conclusions. Neither Kazakhstan, nor Russia, nor Azerbaijan, of course, are interested in hiding information, it will be brought to the public,“ he said.
But Russian military expert Yury Podolyaka said holes seen in the wreckage of the plane were similar to the damage caused by “anti-aircraft missile system”.
“Everything points to that,“ he wrote.
Azerbaijan Airlines initially said the plane flew through a flock of birds before withdrawing the statement.
The airline reported that 67 people were on board the jet -- 62 passengers and five crew members.
Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said that 38 people had been killed, while the Kazakh emergency situations ministry reported “29 survivors, including three children, have been hospitalised”.
Eleven of the injured are in intensive care, the Kazakh health ministry said.
Azerbaijan state news agency Azertac reported that 12 of the survivors were being flown to Azerbaijan.
Day of mourning
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared Thursday a day of mourning and cancelled a planned visit to Russia for an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet nations.
Aliyev’s office said the president “ordered the prompt initiation of urgent measures to investigate the causes of the disaster”.
“I extend my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the crash... and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,“ Aliyev said in a social media post.
The Flight Radar website showed the plane deviating from its normal route, crossing the Caspian Sea and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed near Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the sea.
Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the plane “made an emergency landing” around three kilometres (1.9 miles) from Aktau.
The Kazakh emergency situations ministry said its staff put out a fire which broke out when the plane crashed.
It said 150 emergency workers attended the scene.
Kazakhstan said the plane was carrying 37 Azerbaijani passengers, six Kazakhs, three Kyrgyz and 16 Russians.
Bloodied survivors
A Kazakh woman told the local branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that she was near where the plane crashed and rushed to the site to help survivors.
“They were covered in blood. They were crying. They were calling for help,“ said the woman, who gave her name as Elmira.
She said they saved some teenagers.
“I’ll never forget their look, full of pain and despair,“ said Elmira. “A girl pleaded: ‘Save my mother, my mother is back there’.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation with Aliyev and “expressed his condolences in connection with the crash”, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference.
A Russian emergency situations ministry had been sent to Aktau with medical personnel and other equipment, Putin said later as he opened the CIS leaders’ meeting in Saint Petersburg.
Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also the country’s first vice president, said she was “deeply saddened by the news of the tragic loss of lives in the plane crash near Aktau”.
“I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. Wishing them strength and patience! I also wish a speedy recovery to the injured,“ she said on Instagram.
