BAKU, December 27. /TASS/. An Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) passenger jet, which was en route from Baku to Mineralnye Vody, returned to the airport of its departure following a notification about the closed airspace along its flight route, the company’s press office announced on Friday.

"After the take-off, the captain of the aircraft in charge of the J2-8717 flight en route from Baku to Mineralnye Vody, received a notification about the closure of the airspace over Makhachkala [Russia’s republic of Dagestan] and immediately decided to return," the press office said in a statement.

"The passenger aircraft landed at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport at 10:13 a.m. local time [6:13 a.m. GMT]," the statement added.

The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190, en route from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, on December 25. The plane was carrying 67 people, including 62 passengers—mostly Azerbaijani citizens—along with nationals from 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 dispatched by Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has transported nine Russian nationals, including a child, injured in the crash from Aktau.