Russia Bound Azerbaijan Airlines Plane With Over 60 Passengers Crashes Near Kazakhstan’s Aktau

Dozens of people have died after a passenger plane crashed with 67 people on board in Kazakhstan, local officials say.Authorities in Azerbaijan, where the flight originated, say there were at least 30 survivors.Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 caught fire as it attempted to make an emergency landing near the Kazakh city of Aktau.The plane was en route to Grozny in Russia but it was diverted due to fog, the airline told the BBC.Video verified by Reuters news agency shows the plane heading towards the ground at high speed, with its landing gear down.Seconds after it seems to attempt to land, a huge fireball erupts.The airline said the plane “made an emergency landing” about 3km (1.9 miles) from Aktau.It took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku at 03:55 GMT on Wednesday, and crashed around 06:28, data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed.There were 62 passengers and 5 crew members on board the Embraer 190 aircraft, the transport ministry said.Those on board were mostly Azerbaijani nationals, but there were also some passengers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. n18oc_world n18oc_crux