Azerbaijan Airlines crash: Man shares chilling video of passengers praying moments before impact


This comes as 38 people have been confirmed dead after Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashed near the Kazakhstan city of Aktau. The plane crashed while en route from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the Russian city Grozny in the North Caucasus.
The flight was originally scheduled to travel from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia. The crash is believed to have been caused by an emergency situation following a bird strike, according to Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia. "The pilot chose to divert to Aktau after the bird strike," a spokesperson said.
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Hide AdIn a video now circulating on social media, a survivor sent a recording to his wife just minutes before the crash. In the footage, passengers can be heard praying, with some oxygen masks already deployed.
The man recites a prayer in Arabic as a flight attendant urges passengers to remain calm. Despite appearing composed, he seems to be holding back tears. The video also captures the harrowing moment when part of the plane's wall appears to tear away, with some passengers seen standing amidst the chaos.
Speaking at a news conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said that the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course. “The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he said.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said preliminary information showed that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike led to an emergency on board.
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Hide AdAccording to Kazakh officials, those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals. Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s office previously said that 32 of the 67 people on board had survived the crash, but told journalists that the number was not final.
The Associated Press could not immediately reconcile the difference between the numbers of survivors given by Kazakhstan and Azerbaijani officials. Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball.
Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft lying upside in the grass. The footage corresponded to the plane’s colours and its registration number.
Some of the videos posted on social media showed survivors dragging fellow passengers away from the wreckage.
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Hide AdFlight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft’s altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground. FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming”, which “made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data”, referring to the information that allows flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight.


Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region. Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black.
It also said that it would suspend flights between Baku and Grozny, as well as between Baku and the city of Makhachkala in Russia’s North Caucasus, until its investigation into the crash has been concluded.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency, Azertac, said that an official delegation of Azerbaijan’s emergency situations minister, the deputy general prosecutor and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines were sent to Aktau to conduct an “on-site investigation”.
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Hide AdMr Aliyev, who was travelling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan on hearing news of the crash, the president’s press service said. He was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St Petersburg.
Mr Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media. “It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” he wrote.
He also signed a decree declaring December 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
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