INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
An Embraer passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 62 passengers and
five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, saying that 27 people had survived, Reuters reported.Unverified video of the crash showed
the plane, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising
Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.The Central Asian country&s
emergencies ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that the survivors, including three children, were
being treated at a nearby hospital.Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku
to Grozny, the capital of Russia&s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh
city of Aktau, read the report.Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.Authorities in Kazakhstan said
they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia&s Interfax news agency
reported.Russia&s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency
landing after a bird strike.Following the crash, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, was returning home from Russia where he had been
due to attend a summit on Wednesday, Russia&s RIA news agency reported.Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his
condolences in a statement and said those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray
for their rapid recovery.The post Passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashes in Kazakhstan with many feared dead first
