Many feared dead as Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan

A passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia with 67 people on board has crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.

Flight number J2-8243, an Embraer 190 aircraft with 62 passengers and five crew members on board, was forced to make an emergency landing on Wednesday about 3km (1.8 miles) from Aktau.Health officials and medical workers said at least four bodies have been found and many more are feared dead, including the two pilots. At least 32 passengers have survived and were hospitalised, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office in Azerbaijan.

“We cannot disclose any investigation results at this time. All possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expert analyses are underway,” it said in a statement.

“An investigative team, led by the deputy prosecutor general of Azerbaijan, has been dispatched to Kazakhstan and is working at the crash site.”

Azerbaijan Airlines is suspending all its flights from Baku to Russia’s Chechnya region until the investigation is concludes according to the Russian state news agency TASS.

Russian news agency Interfax cited the ministry as saying that there may be more survivors and quoted medical workers at the scene as saying that four bodies have been recovered.

The ministry said fire services had put out the blaze. It said 150 emergency workers were at the scene.

“According to preliminary reports, the plane requested landing at an alternative airport before the accident … due to heavy fog in Grozny,” Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova reported from Moscow.

Passengers on the plane included citizens from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Shapovalova added.

The airline has set up a hotline for family members of the passengers.

Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike. Aktau is on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan and Russia.

Authorities in Kazakhstan said a government commission had been set up to investigate what had happened and its members ordered to fly to the site and ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they needed.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has cut short a visit to Russia – where he was due to attend a summit on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev was forced to leave St Petersburg (where he had a summit). Putin has already called him and expressed his condolences in connection with the crash of the Azerbaijani plane in Aktau,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

“We deeply sympathise with those who lost their relatives and friends in this plane crash and wish a speedy recovery to all those who managed to survive.”

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said those hospitalised were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.