Dozens survive passenger plane crash in Kazakhstan

Dozens of people have died after a passenger plane with 69 people on board crashed in Kazakhstan, local authorities said.

Kazakhstani authorities said 38 people died in the crash and the rest survived.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 caught fire during an emergency landing attempt near the Kazakh city of Aktau.

The plane was traveling to Grozny in Russia but it was diverted due to fog, the airline told the BBC.

Footage shows the plane heading towards the ground at high speed with its landing gear down before bursting into flames as it lands.

The airline said the plane “made an emergency landing” about 3 km (1.9 miles) from Aktau.

It took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku at 03:55 GMT on Wednesday and crashed at around 06:28, data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed.

According to unconfirmed reports from Russian media, the plane may have collided with a flock of birds before crashing.

Azerbaijan Airlines said flights between Baku and the Russian cities of Grozny and Makhachkala would be canceled until an investigation into the incident was completed.

On board were mostly citizens of Azerbaijan, but there were also passengers from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

A woman who had traveled to spend the holidays with her children in Chechnya, whose capital is Grozny, died in the crash. A mother traveling with medical tests for her sick child is still missing.

A young woman shared her heartache with the BBC’s Azerbaijan service as she desperately tried to find out what happened to her father, who was on the flight.

She explained that her father was traveling with his son, who survived the crash. The son was able to contact his sister, but there was still no news of their father.

Unverified video footage shows survivors crawling from the wreckage, some with visible injuries.

Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have launched investigations into the incident. Embraer told the BBC it was “ready to assist all relevant authorities”.

The BBC has contacted Azerbaijan Airlines for comment.

Embraer, a Brazilian manufacturer, is a smaller rival to Boeing and Airbus and has a good safety record.