An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane crashed near the Aqtu airport in Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning. The Embraer ERJ-190 type aircraft was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Grozny.

Initial information on the number of passengers and survivors was not available. According to the Russian state agency Tass, the plane was diverted to Machatschkala due to strong fog. FlightRadar 24, a Swedish service, shows that the plane recorded strongly fluctuating altitude and speed data before the crash and had sent out a distress signal.