38 dead as Azerbaijani jet crashes in Kazakhstan

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, officials said. The Embraer 190 aircraft that was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia instead flew across the Caspian Sea and went down near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The plane's course on Flight Radar showed it flying away from its normal route and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed near Aktau, which is an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.Azerbaijan Airlines reported that 67 people were on board -- 62 passengers and five crew members.The Kazakh emergency situations ministry reported earlier in the day that "28 survivors including two children have been hospitalised."The Kazakh transport ministry said the plane was carrying 37 nationals from Azerbaijan, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan and 16 from Russia."We cannot disclose any investigation results at this time," the office of Azerbaijan's prosecutor general said in a statement."All possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expert analyses are underway," it added.