‍DALLAS — This morning, December 25, news broke of an Azerbaijan Airlines (J2) Embraer E190 crash near Atkau, Western Kazakhstan.

The flight, J2-8243, was on course from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny, the Chechen capital in southern Russia. 

Reports suggest up to 67 passengers were aboard the flight, split between 62 passengers and five crew members. 

Estimates suggest at least 28 survived the crash, while other reports suggest 30 did. Information is not yet clear or readily available at this early stage in the investigation.

The aircraft was an Embraer E190AR, registered as 4K-AZ65. It was delivered new to J2 in July 2013, where it spent much of its service life, save for a period with Buta Airways, also from Azerbaijan, from 2017 to the beginning of 2023, when it returned to J2. At the time of the crash, it was 11.6 years old.

What We Know About the Crash

As stated, the accident flight was J2 flight 8243 from Baku to Grozny, with 67 souls on board. The plane had flown in from Bishkek early that morning without incident; this would be its second of four scheduled flights that day. 

The plane pushed back from its gate at 7:55 a.m. Baku time, five minutes ahead of schedule for its 55-minute flight to Grozny. Within 10 minutes, it was airborne and quickly entered Russian airspace at 30,000 feet.

Publicly available flight data suggests that the aircraft began squawking 7700, the code for a general emergency, at 10:08 a.m. Baku time, more than two hours after it was due to land in Grozny. The crew may have radioed in, reporting a flight control systems failure, and requested that the pilots divert to Atkau, Kazakhstan. 

From this point, the plane’s flight path appeared to show it moving erratically, oscillating from left to right, up and down, quickly losing and gaining speed and altitude. Flight data suggests that the plane came within feet of crashing into the Caspian Sea not far from the shoreline of Atkau before gaining altitude once again. 

At this point, the pilots had managed to crudely line the aircraft up for an emergency landing on Aktau Airport’s (SCO) runway 11. 

Due to the aircraft’s oscillations, however, the pilots abandoned this approach, turning the plane for a 360-degree turn to the left, repeating the maneuver to the right, and nearly coming in contact with the ground at least twice before time ran out for flight 8243.

The J2 E190 impacted the ground at 10:28 am Baku time, roughly 3 miles/ 5km northwest of SCO. 

Video evidence shows the plane, with its landing gear extended, pitching and rolling while attempting to re-establish itself on the approach. The plane is then shown entering a dive before impacting the ground nose first, in a right-hand turn, with the front fuselage and right wing bearing the brunt of the impact. 

The plane then cartwheels and catches fire, and the rear fuselage separates, distancing itself from the fire and being thrown free. This section would then land largely intact and on its roof.

Immediate Aftermath

Rescue workers and eyewitnesses arrived at the scene quickly after the crash, and great efforts have been made to control the fire and rescue survivors. Current reports suggest that between 28 and 32 passengers survived the crash, leaving between 35 and 39 fatalities.

In addition to providing support on the ground at the crash site, J2 has published the names of all on board and established a hotline for those affected by the crash.

Azerbaijan Airlines told the Azertac news agency that it had suspended flights from Baku to Grozny and Makhachkala until the investigation into the crash of its Embraer 190 aircraft was complete.

It should be noted that this report was submitted mere hours after the event. Details are still unverified and subject to change. This post aims to provide an unbiased view of the currently available information and be as respectful as possible to the families of those involved.

Featured image: J2 Embraer 190AR (ERJ-190-100IGW) 4K-AZ65 Antalya Airport (AYT) June 18, 2016.