Azerbaijan Airlines crash kills 38 in Kazakhstan

An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, resulting in 38 fatalities among the 67 people aboard Flight 8432, which was traveling from Baku to Grozny.

Sources connected to the crash investigation told Euronews that passengers reported hearing an explosion and seeing shrapnel damage to the fuselage as the aircraft approached Grozny. An Azerbaijan-based news channel, AnewZ, cited a Russian military blogger suggesting the plane may have been accidentally hit by an air-defense missile system. Grozny, being a strategic location in Russia's military operations, maintains substantial air defenses.

Flight-tracking data revealed unusual patterns, with the aircraft making a figure-eight movement near Aktau airport and experiencing significant altitude fluctuations before impact. FlightRadar24 reported strong GPS jamming that affected the plane's ADS-B data transmission. Social media footage shows the aircraft struggling before breaking apart in a fiery crash landing.

The passenger manifest included 37 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russians, six Kazakhs, and three Kyrgyz nationals. Initially, varying reports of survivors emerged, with the final count confirming 29 survivors, including two children, all of whom have been hospitalized.

While Azerbaijan Airlines initially attributed the crash to a bird strike, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated at a news conference that the aircraft diverted to Aktau due to deteriorating weather conditions, emphasizing it was premature to speculate about the cause.

If the missile strike theory is confirmed, the incident would draw parallels to the 2014 MH17 tragedy, when Russian-backed forces shot down a passenger aircraft over Donbas.

Azerbaijan Airlines has promised to keep the public informed and has changed its social media presence to solid black in mourning. Embraer, the aircraft manufacturer, has not yet commented on the incident.