On Christmas day, an Azerbaijan plane tragically crashed in Kazakhstan, with footage capturing the crash itself as well as the aftermath of the fall where many wounded are seen emerging from the wreckage.
The disturbing footage shows the plane falling to the ground in an explosion that killed 38 people, two of which were the pilots.
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The moment of the crash was caught on camera
Footage from cell phones on the ground filmed the rapidly falling plane, an Embraer 190 passenger aircraft, plunging to the ground just outside of Aktau, Kazakhstan.
The crash caused an explosion upon impact with the ground, killing 38 people.
There were 62 passengers on board
The plane, which had departed from Baku, Azerbaijan, had 62 passengers, two pilots, and five crew members on board when it crashed on Wednesday.
On board the crashed aircraft were 37 Azerbaijanis, 16 Russians, six Kazakhstanis, and three citizens from Kyrgyzstan.
The plane had gone off course
The Azerbaijan Airlines Flt. J2-8243 was headed for Grozny, Russia, after departing from the Azerbaijan capital of Baku.
But the pilot took the plane off course for hundreds of miles and was forced to have an emergency landing due to an initially speculated bird strike.
Others speculate a different story
The bird strike theory was quickly questioned because one of the oxygen tanks on the plane had exploded.
According to the Telegraph, this prompted whether the plane had mistakenly crossed paths with the Russian air defense system, which might have shot it down.
The pilots were pronounced dead
According to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, in speaking with the news agency Interfax, medical workers shared that both of the aircraft’s pilots were dead, with some of the survivors of the crash in critical condition.
Thirty-eight people were reported dead by AFP, with 29 found alive and hospitalized.
People come out of the wreckage
In one video filming the aftermath of the crash, which Storyful has corroborated, a destroyed plane fuselage is seen on the ground with shocked passengers being helped out of the mangled aircraft.
The rescued passengers seem dazed in the video, stumbling on their way out of the wreck.
Another video was taken inside the plane
Another video filmed from inside the plummeting aircraft seemed to briefly depict someone’s hair covered in blood before showing the rest of the broken aircraft.
The plane seemed to be covered with debris, meanwhile a person could be heard murmuring in pain.
Drone movement between Russia and Ukraine
The continued drone movement between Russia and Ukraine had previously caused local airports to close, with at least one airport having been closed the morning of the crash.
The plane crash occurred just days after a Ukrainian drone hit southern Russia.
Multiple countries are investigating the crash
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia are all investigating the circumstances which may have led to the crash.
According to the Telegraph, Russian military bloggers and aviation analysts have also speculated the holes in the plane’s fuselage could be resulting from shrapnel from a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
Others speculate it was hit by another
The Telegraph also reported that while some think it could have been a Russian anti-aircraft missile shooting the plane to its doom, others speculated that it could have been accidentally shot down after having been mistaken for a Ukrainian drone.
