ASTANA: Following the death of 38 of the 67 individuals on board a passenger jet operated by the flag carrier on Christmas Day in western Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan declared a national day of mourning on Thursday.
Instead of traveling northwest from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, in Chechnya, southern Russia, the Embraer 190 plane took a detour across the Caspian Sea. On Wednesday, it crashed close to the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Sixty-two passengers and five crew members were on board the aircraft, according to Azerbaijan Airlines.
38 people were murdered, according to Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev, who also told Russia’s Interfax news agency that “29 survivors, including three children, have been hospitalized.”
