Aliyev returns to Azerbaijan over Baku-Grozny passenger plane crash

 
A passenger plane crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday. As the country’s emergencies ministry reports, 52 rescuers and 11 pieces of equipment arrived at the crash site.

Kazakhstan’s transport ministry reported that it was a flight of Azerbaijan Airlines, en route from Baku to Grozny in Russia’s Chechnya.

The circumstances of the accident are being clarified. A special investigation will be conducted, the ministry added. 

According to the country’s emergencies ministry, there were 67 passengers on the plane. The transport ministry reported that among the passengers were 16 citizens of Russia, 37 citizens of Azerbaijan, 6 citizens of Kazakhstan and 3 citizens of Kyrgyzstan. The ministry said there were 25 survivors of the crash, with 22 of them taken to hospitals.

In this regard, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is returning to Baku from Russia, where he was supposed to participate in the CIS informal meeting, a source in Azerbaijan told RIA Novosti.