The uncle of the survivor of the Aktau plane crash said that he was flying the plane for the first time

The uncle of a passenger who survived the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane in Aktau told Izvestia on December 25 that the flight was the first in his nephew's life.

The plane was flying from Baku to Grozny. According to the man named Iqbal, he invited his relative to visit him for two weeks. Previously, his nephew Ayhan had never been to Russia or traveled by air.

"He himself is in shock, he doesn't know what was, what happened. It was the first time he flew in an airplane," the man shared.

Ayhan was able to relay to a relative that he was okay, he and the other survivors were put in a hotel and would later be sent to a location of their choice. The 21-year-old young man informed his uncle that he still intended to stay with him.

Tragedy in Aktau: Baku-Grozny passenger plane crashed

A fire started at the scene and there are survivors

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane en route from Baku to Grozny crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on December 25. After the crash the plane caught fire, the fire was extinguished. Preliminarily, the cause of the fall of the airplane could have been a collision with a flock of birds.

Azerbaijan Airlines published a list of passengers of the crashed airplane near Aktau, it includes 62 people, 32 survivors in total, the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan said. The Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan reported that 16 Russians were flying in the plane. According to the Russian Embassy in the republic, 10 of them survived and were hospitalized.

A criminal case was initiated under the article "Violation of safety rules in the operation of vehicles, resulting in the death of two or more persons by negligence". Search and rescue operations continue at the site of the tragedy. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared December 26 a day of mourning in the country for the victims of the plane crash.