Azerbaijan Declares National Mourning for December 26

A national day of mourning has been declared in Azerbaijan for December 26 over the tragic crash of the Embraer 190 passenger aircraft, operating the Baku-Grozny flight on December 25, which resulted in numerous casualties, The Caspian Post reports.

President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order in this regard.

Earlier it was reported that Embraer 190 aircraft, operating Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 en route from Baku to Grozny crashed 3 km away from Kazakhstan’s Aktau.

67 people, including 5 crew members were onboard the Azerbaijani Airlines plane at the moment of the crash. According to the preliminary data of the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 37 nationals of Azerbaijan, 6 nationals of Kazakhstan, 3 nationals of Kyrgyzstan and 16 nationals of the Russian Federation were onboard of the crashed aircraft.

52 rescuers and 11 units of equipment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan arrived at the scene of the plane crash in Aktau. Those who survived the plane crashed were rushed to local hospitals.

4 bodies were recovered at the site of the plane crash.