Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard crashes in Kazakhstan leaving 32 survivors

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By KATIE MARIE DAVIES and DASHA LITVINOVA
Updated 5:45 AM CST, December 25, 2024

An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard crashed Wednesday near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, leaving at least 32 survivors, according to officials. More than 30 people may be dead.

The plane was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.

Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry said in a Telegram statement that those on board included five crew. A total of 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.

Another Russian news agency, Interfax quoted medical workers as saying that four bodies have been recovered and emergency workers at the scene as saying that both pilots, according to a preliminary assessment, died in the crash.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/azerbaijan-airliner-crash-kazakhstan-aktau-a655474030a347a5a7ddda3a77bbeddc

[2naSalit]

1. ...

[Dennis Donovan]

3. Video of the aircraft accident

Link to tweet

[EarlG]

4. Wow

Some kind of severe mechanical issue? If so, the pilots probably did all they could. Unbelievable that anyone survived that, let alone half the passengers.

[Dennis Donovan]

7. Good question. It looks as if the pilots were fighting to keep the aircraft level.

From what I've read, there was a bird strike. If the strike was to the controls of the aircraft, it would explain their difficulty in controlling it.

[LeftInTX]

5. I think the plane's route is wrong or something! Cuz how did it end up in Kazakhstan?

It was headed west to Chechen, but went down on other side of the Caspian sea?

[Yonnie3]

6. It diverted

From the linked AP story in the OP https://apnews.com/article/azerbaijan-airliner-crash-kazakhstan-aktau-a655474030a347a5a7ddda3a77bbeddc

RIA Novosti quoted Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, as saying that preliminary information showed that the pilot had chosen to divert to Kazakhstan’s Aktau after a bird strike on the aircraft led to “an emergency situation on board”.

Perhaps the pilots thought being over water was better than land during their energency.

[mainer]

8. New evidence this was a result of Russian fire

Photos of downed aircraft show what appear to be bullet holes in the fuselage.
All the speculation about "birdstrike" are coming from Russian agencies.

Link to tweet

[Lulu KC]

9. Yeah, blame the birds

Bastards.

[bluestarone]

10. No radio message

Stating that they were shot at? Seems strange that there was damage there before.

[mainer]

11. Adam Kinzinger now calling it a Russian shutdown

There's interior video from a passenger showing damage before the plane went down.

https://bsky.app/profile/adamkinzinger.bsky.social/post/3le5hydmr6c22


Adam Kinzinger
‪@adamkinzinger.bsky.social‬
Russia shot down another airliner, on Christmas

Stop russia

[mainer]

12. UK Guardian cites speculation it was Russian air defense shootdown

"There was speculation in Russian media that the plane could have been shot down by Russian air defences, which mistook it for a Ukrainian drone.

The Fighterbomber Telegram channel, believed to be run by Capt Ilya Tumanov of the Russian army, released a clip showing what appeared to be holes, which some suggested resembled the kind of damage caused by shelling or an explosion with shrapnel.

Fighterbomber said it was unlikely that the holes were caused by a bird strike."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/25/kazakhstan-plane-crash-aktau-azerbaijan-airlines-baku-grozny-fog-chechnya

[Old Crank]

13. I wouldn't expect that the damage shown

would be from a bird strike. That would have been on a leading edge not a trailing edge.

Wonder what other damage there was.

Saw video clips on the subway on the way home. The pilots did a good job saving almost half the pasengers.

[EX500rider]

14. Looks like another Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (ie shot down by Russian air defense)

Looks like shrapnel damage in the tail severed hydraulics/control link leaving the pilots with only throttles to control the plane, like JAL Flight 123.

Damage:

[mitch96]

15. More info from an ex military analyst/computer guy...