Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan

Azerbaijan passenger plane. Photo / Getty Images

• An Azerbaijan Airlines jet from Baku to Grozny crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan.
• The Embraer 190 made an emergency landing with 62 passengers and five crew on board.
• Kazakh authorities reported a fire at the site and confirmed there are survivors.

Fourteen survivors from the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in western Kazakhstan have been hospitalised, local health officials said on Wednesday.

“At the moment, 14 survivors have been taken to the regional hospital, including five in intensive care,” the health ministry’s regional department said in a statement.

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet flying from the capital Baku to Grozny in Russia crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, the Kazakh transport ministry said on Wednesday.

“A plane doing the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. It belongs to Azerbaijan Airlines,” the ministry said on Telegram.

Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the Embraer 190 had “made an emergency landing” around 3km from Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

The Kazakh transport ministry said there were 62 passengers and five crew members on the plane.

The country’s emergency situations ministry said its personnel were putting out a fire at the site.

“Information about casualties is currently being clarified but, according to preliminary information, there are survivors,” it said.

- Agence France-Presse