A year after an Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau, residents and first responders alike are still remembering the day when 38 people lost their lives.
On December 25, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. Astana time (7:00 a.m. Central European time), Aktau Airport Air Traffic Control reported that an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane from Baku to Grozny had declared a state of emergency and requested to land at the airport.
The plane, scheduled to land at 11:25 a.m., crashed just five minutes later between the airport and the village of Akshkir, about 3 kilometers (3 kilometers) short of the runway.
There were 67 people on board the plane, including five crew members. Thirty-eight people died in the accident, and 29 others survived with injuries.
Doctors from the Mangistau Regional Emergency Medical Center were the first to arrive at the crash scene. Ospan Orazbekov told Euronews that he saw everything happen before his eyes.
“Along with the paramedics and the ambulance driver, I immediately headed to the airport. On the way, I saw a plane in the sky, moving very quickly with its nose towards the ground,” Orazbekov recalled.
“We were hoping that the pilot would be able to land on the runway, but the plane flew past the airport towards the village of Akushkir. I told the driver that we had to give chase,” he recalled.
“We were driving without taking our eyes off the plane, and then black smoke appeared. We sped up and tried to get there as quickly as possible. When we arrived, we saw the plane split into two parts,” Orazbekov said.
“The front part was on fire, so we immediately went to the rear because there were people there. We did what we could. We unbuckled the eight injured passengers. Then I went deeper into the wreckage to see if there were children or pregnant women inside.”
“I remember all the faces of the people I rescued from the plane and I still see them,” Orazbekov said.
Immediately after the crash, local residents rushed to the scene. People driving by stopped to help passengers get off the plane. The injured were taken to Mangistau Regional Multidisciplinary Hospital.
For resuscitation doctor Bakitsukhan Koibekov, December 25, 2024 began like any other day. After the plane crash, the hospital was informed that people injured in the accident were being transported.
Doctors immediately called an emergency meeting to prepare beds and treatment areas. A total of 29 people were taken to Aktau hospitals, 11 of whom are in intensive care in critical condition.
“The patients were in critical condition. Many had head and brain injuries and fractured collarbones, arms and shoulders. Some had even broken ribs,” said Bakitsan Koibekov, head of the intensive care unit at the Mangystau Regional Multidisciplinary Hospital.
Aktau residents immediately responded to the emergency call. People lined up at the city’s blood center to donate blood and help those injured in the accident.
“As doctors, we respond to many emergencies every day, but we never expected so many people to gather at once. On the same day, a Russian national was evacuated from the ICU by helicopter. Patients from Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan were then gradually evacuated as their condition stabilized,” he added.
“All patients were treated and returned home safely. We did everything we could. We are grateful to the teams who worked day and night to care for our patients.”
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that the fire in the combustion section of the aircraft was extinguished within 30 minutes of the crash.
Tragedy still remains at the crash site
In February, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport released a preliminary report on the crash of Flight 8243, saying the plane was struck twice within seconds by “external objects” – later determined to be debris from the explosion of a Russian air defense missile – as it approached Grozny from Baku.
The pilots initially requested a diversion to Makhachkala’s Mineralny Vody and Uitash airports, but when Russian air traffic control refused to land, the crew declared a Squawk 7700 and called for an emergency landing at Kazakhstan’s Aktau International Airport.
The aircraft was cleared to land by Aktau air traffic control, but after entering Kazakh airspace, it circled the runway twice and tragically crashed on the third approach.
28 December 2024 Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the “tragic incident” involving the aircraft in Russian airspace, saying a Ukrainian drone had targeted Grozny without taking responsibility for the crash.
However, in a meeting with Aliyev at a regional summit in Dushanbe on October 9 of this year, President Putin admitted that Russian air defense forces were responsible for downing the Azerbaijani airliner.
Aliyev, who was flying to St. Petersburg for an informal CIS summit last year, was informed of the plane crash over Russian airspace and immediately ordered the plane to return to Baku.
Aliyev declined to attend this year’s informal CIS summit to be held in St. Petersburg on December 22, ahead of the first anniversary of the tragedy.
A year later, the scars of the tragedy still remain at the crash site. Scattered on the grassland are passengers’ personal belongings, oxygen masks, safety precautions, pieces of luggage, and pieces of the melted fuselage.
Residents of the Mangistau region established a monument at the scene in memory of the crew and victims of the crash.