
By Maria Gordeyeva
ASTANA (Reuters) – An Embraer passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday with 67 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities said. said 12 people were saved.
Unverified video of the crash showed the plane, operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke rising.
The Central Asian country’s emergency ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the fire and that survivors were being treated at a nearby hospital.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, was flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but was forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Russian news agencies said the plane was rerouted due to fog in Grozny.
Kazakhstan authorities said they began to look at different possible versions of what happened, including a technical problem, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.