MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Subkhonkul Rakhimov, a survivor of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash near the city of Aktau, told TASS that the passengers eventually realized their lives were at risk, but there was no panic.

The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190, en route from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, on December 25. The plane carried 67 people, including 62 passengers, mostly citizens of Azerbaijan, as well as nationals of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and five crew members. According to the latest reports, 38 people, including seven Russians, were killed, while 29 others survived. A special flight sent by Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has transported nine Russian nationals, including a child, injured in the crash, from Aktau.

"From what I have seen, there were three attempts to land the plane in Grozny. It tried to make a landing, failed, then pulled up, circled Grozny again, made a turn, then tried to land again and failed once more," the survivor recalled. "I was not too worried. I thought that, well, if it could not land here, we would simply fly to a different city and land there, and the plane was still intact."

 

No panic aboard

 

The survivor reported that the passengers realized the severity of the situation when the plane "left Grozny" and "began to gain significant height." "And then we understood it was about our survival. You could say, we started praying," Rakhimov admitted.

At the same time, he specified that the people aboard were acting generally composed. "There was no panic on the plane, no one was tackling each other," he said, noting the flight attendant’s professional and composed behavior.

Rakhimov clarified that he was sitting in the back of the plane, with men behind him and three women in front of him. According to him, then they landed and everyone who could started leaving the aircraft. Soon after, operational services of Kazakhstan came to the survivors’ aid.