A passenger plane with 72 people on board hit the ground in a fireball in a Christmas Day crash landing in Kazakhstan.
The Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft crashed near Kazakhstan’s Aktau Airport close to the Caspian Sea on Wednesday morning, December 25, Kazakh authorities said, with up to 40 people feared dead.
The aircraft was flying from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia, the Transport Ministry said in a post to its official Telegram channel.
It was rerouted to Aktau in Kazakhstan due to fog in Grozny, Russian news agencies reported.
Footage of the crash showed the plane bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the plane was carrying 69 people — 64 passengers and five crew members.
The ministry said 29 people survived the crash, with many hospitalized.
Two children were among those hospitalized, the ministry said in a post to its Telegram channel.
