Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan, 38 killed

An Embraer (EMBR3.SA), passenger jet crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people, after diverting from an area of Russia that Moscow has recently defended against Ukrainian drone attacks.

Twenty-nine survivors received hospital treatment.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan to Russia to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea, after what Russia's aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike. But an aviation expert suggested that cause seemed unlikely.

Officials did not immediately explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash came after Ukrainian drone strikes this month hit the Chechnya region of southern Russia.

The nearest Russian airport on the plane's flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.

Kyiv has not acknowledged strikes this month on the Chechen city of Grozny, where the flight was headed.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said according to information he had received, the plane changed course due to poor weather, but he added the cause of the crash was unknown and must be fully investigated.

“This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” he said.

Video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly before bursting into flames as it hit the seashore, and thick black smoke then rising.

Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.