Today's Edition
Astana (AFP)
Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning on Thursday after a passenger jet from the flag carrier crashed in Kazakhstan killing 38 people.
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 on Wednesday near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
An investigation is underway.
Azerbaijan Airlines 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".
Jalil Aliyev, the father of flight attendant Hokume Aliyeva, told AFP that this was supposed to have been her last flight before starting a job as a lawyer for the airline.
"Why did her young life have to end so tragically?" the man said in a trembling voice before hanging up the phone.
Azerbaijan state news agency Azertac reported that 12 of the survivors were being flown to Azerbaijan.
A plane carrying nine injured Russian nationals, including a child, also arrived at Zhukovsky airport in the Moscow region on Thursday, Russia's emergency situations ministry said.
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 on Wednesday.
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 said the plane "made an emergency landing" around three kilometres from Aktau.
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) she was near where the plane crashed and rushed to the site to help survivors.
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 plane was sent to Aktau on Wednesday with medical personnel and other equipment.
Chinese President Xi Jinping also called his Azerbaijani, Kazakh and Russian counterparts to send his "deep condolences", according to CCTV.
