Azerbaijani plane crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38 and injuring 29

A passenger plane crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, killing 38 people. Twenty-nine people survived and have received hospital treatment. The Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of kilometres off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan to Russia before it crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Russia’s aviation watchdog said the emergency may have been caused by a bird strike, but some aviation experts suggested that scenario was unlikely. The crash of the aircraft made by Brazilian company Embraer came after Ukrainian drone strikes hit the Chechen region of southern Russia earlier in the month.