THIS is the terrifying moment a passenger plane plunged from the sky, erupting into a fireball in a devastating Christmas Day crash that has left dozens feared dead.
Heart-stopping footage shows the Embraer aircraft nosediving before smashing into the ground near Aktau in western Kazakhstan.
The plane, operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, had 62 passengers and five crew members on board.
Among them were at least 60 Russian nationals, heading to Grozny, the capital of Russia‘s Chechnya region—an area under the control of Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov.
Its fiery descent saw it breaking into several parts upon crash landing.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene, battling towering flames and thick plumes of black smoke rising ominously into the sky.
Authorities said that 25 people were miraculously pulled alive from the wreckage, but several are reported to be in critical condition.
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.
Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Officials revealed the flight, en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny in Russia, sent out a distress signal at just 2,125 feet over the Caspian Sea.
Reports suggest the plane collided with a flock of birds, causing steering failure.
The cockpit’s final, desperate attempt to land in Aktau was captured in horrifying detail.
The aircraft is seen descending too steeply, its nose pointed sharply down, moments before the crash shattered the festive morning.
Witnesses described a deafening explosion as the plane broke apart and burst into flames upon impact.
Images of the flaming wreckage, with emergency services battling to control the inferno, capture the sheer scale of the disaster as charred fragments of the plane lie scattered across the crash site.
Kazaeronavigatsiya, Kazakhstan’s air navigation authority, confirmed the emergency declaration, stating: “The Embraer 190 AHY8243 aircraft travelling on the Baku-Grozny route declared an emergency situation due to a collision with a bird and violation of steering control.”
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.
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