Emergencies Ministry's special airplane will carry Russians injured in Aktau plane crash to Moscow

The IL-76 airplane of the Russian Emergencies Ministry will deliver to Moscow the Russians injured in the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) airliner in Kazakhstan's Aktau. This was reported on December 25 by the press service of the agency.

"In accordance with the order of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and on behalf of the head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry Alexander Kurenkov, a special board of the Russian Emergencies Ministry flew from Moscow to Aktau", - stated in the message published in the Telegram-channel.

It was specified that the victims will be accompanied by doctors of the "Tsentropas" detachment of the Emergencies Ministry, psychologists of the center of emergency psychological aid of the department, as well as specialists of the Ministry of Health.

The special airplane is equipped with artificial respiration devices, cardiac monitors and other necessary modern equipment.

Earlier in the day,the Russian President informedabout the flight of aspecial airplane of the RussianEmergencies Ministry to Aktau at the informal summit of the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In addition, Putin expressed condolences to the families of the victims of the plane crash and called the incident a tragedy. The head of state also expressed hope for a speedy recovery of all the injured.

Tragedy in Aktau: Baku-Grozny passenger plane crashed

A fire started at the scene and there are survivors

A passenger airplane of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), heading on the route Baku - Grozny, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau earlier in the day. The crew attempted to make an emergency landing at the city's airport, but the plane went down and 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.

The list of AZAL passengers includes 62 people, 32 survivors in total, the Prosecutor General'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 has been opened under the article "Violation of safety rules in the operation of vehicles, causing 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.