Investigations Opened Into Azerbaijan Airlines Crash That Killed 38

TaiwanPlus News

Multiple investigations have been opened into the cause of an Azerbaijan Airlines crash that killed a reported 38 people. The plane, which was on its way to the Chechen capital Grozny, flew hundreds of miles off course before it crashed in Kazakhstan while attempting an emergency landing.

Transcript

00:00A Christmas emergency turned deadly.

00:06This passenger plane was en route from Azerbaijan capital, Baku, to southern Russia when it

00:10changed course, instead flying into Kazakhstan where it attempted to make an emergency landing

00:15and ultimately crashed.

00:17Social media footage shows the plane descending steeply, then bursting into flames as it collided

00:22with the ground.

00:23Of those on board, 38 were killed.

00:26According to the information on board, there were 69 people on board, 5 of them were crew members.

00:3242 of them were Azerbaijanians, 16 were Russian, 6 were from Kazakhstan, and 3 were from Kyrgyzstan.

00:38Other reports have said there were 67 people on board.

00:42Firefighters put out the blaze, while survivors were pulled out of the wreckage.

00:47But the question many are asking is what caused the plane to crash?

00:52Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Russia have all opened investigations as conflicting preliminary

00:57reports emerge.

00:58Azerbaijan's president said the plane changed course due to bad weather and was heading

01:03to an airport in a Kazakh coastal city when it crashed.

01:07Independent Russian media outlets have reported the plane may have been shot down by a Russian

01:11missile, with some reporting that Ukraine hit Chechnya, where the plane was headed,

01:15with drone strikes that same day.

01:18But Russia's aviation authority has instead said the plane diverted after it collided

01:22with a bird.

01:23Russian President Vladimir Putin sent help to Kazakhstan and offered his condolences.

01:36Azerbaijan Airlines has suspended flights from its capital to Grozny and one other city

01:40in southern Russia until investigations are done.

01:43For now, there is much speculation and little certainty about whether what happened here

01:48was due to natural causes or a man-made one.

01:52Justin Wu and Keynes Coranta for Taiwan Plus.

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