A drone view shows the crash site of the plane near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan. (Reuters: Azamat Sarsenbayev)
An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Russia, has crashed in western Kazakhstan, according to the Kazakh transport ministry.
"A plane doing the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. It belongs to Azerbaijan Airlines," the ministry said on Telegram.
Azerbaijan Airlines, the country's flag carrier, said the Embraer 190 had "made an emergency landing" about 3 kilometres from Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea on Wednesday, local time.
Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.
The Kazakh transport ministry said there were 62 passengers and five crew members on the plane.
Unverified video of the crash showed the plane, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising.
The plane was reportedly forced to make an emergency landing near the Caspian port city of Aktau, in western Kazakhstan. (Reuters: Pavel Mikheyev, file)
Kazakhstan's emergency situations ministry said its personnel were putting out a fire at the site.
"Information about casualties is currently being clarified but, according to preliminary information, there are survivors," it said.
"At the moment, 14 survivors have been taken to the regional hospital, including five in intensive care," the health ministry's regional department said in a statement.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
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