Investigators of Azerbaijan Airlines Crash to Release Findings within 30 Days — Official

The Kazakh Transport Ministry earlier announced that it sent flight recorders from the plane to the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center in Brazil

© Isa Tazhenbaev/ TASS

ASTANA, December 30. /TASS/. The Kazakh government’s commission investigating the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash is set to release preliminary findings within 30 days, Kazakh Deputy Transport Minister Talgat Lastayev.

"In general, standards require preliminary or interim results of an investigation to be announced within 30 days," he said in an interview with the Kazinform news agency when asked when the commission would present its initial conclusions on the disaster.

"What is currently underway is a field stage of the investigation, meaning [collecting] fragments of the aircraft, prints at the site of the plane crash, taking casts, and all of this is brought to a specially designated hangar at the Aktau airport," said the official, who is a member of the investigation commission. "And all this is being painstakingly evaluated by experts."

The Kazakh Transport Ministry earlier announced that it sent flight recorders from the plane to the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center in Brazil.

An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 plane headed from Baku to Grozny crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on December 25. The aircraft carried 67 people, including 62 passengers and five crew members. They were primarily citizens of Azerbaijan, as well as nationals of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. According to the latest data, 38 people, including seven Russians, lost their lives, while 29 others survived. Nine Russian survivors were taken to hospitals in Russia.