Expert told what saved the lives of passengers in the plane crash in Aktau

The separation of the tail part of the airplane in Aktau was a possible reason for saving the lives of many passengers. Andrey Patrakov, founder of the RunAvia flight safety service, told Izvestia on December 25.

"As you can see, the separation of the tail part [of the airplane] occurred during landing. This is probably what saved many people," he stated.

According to him, thanks to the pilots' actions, a strong explosion, which could have resulted in even more casualties, was avoided.

"The airplane is quite young in terms of development age. This is the Embraer family, <...> they were developed about 20 years ago. This version is one of the last modernized versions, and in general the reputation of the aircraft of this family is quite good," the expert stressed.

Tragedy in Aktau: Baku-Grozny passenger plane crashed

A fire started at the scene and there are survivors

A passenger airplane of Azerbaijan Airlines, heading on the route Baku - Grozny, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau earlier in the day. After the crash the plane caught fire, the fire was extinguished. Preliminary, the cause of the fall of the plane could be a collision with a flock of birds. After the crash, a criminal case was opened under the article "Violation of safety rules in the operation of vehicles, resulting in the death of two or more persons by negligence".

December 25, Azerbaijan Airlines published a list of passengers of the plane crashed near Aktau, it includes 62 people. It is known that 32 people survived the crash. The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) told Izvestia that there were no organized groups of Russian tourists on board the crashed Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft. The Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan reported that 16 Russians were on the plane. The Russian Embassy in the Republic reported that 10 of them survived and were hospitalized.