ASTANA, January 15. /TASS/. A commission investigating a recent Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) aircraft crash in Kazakhstan will publish a preliminary report outlining the established facts and findings from the probe, a spokesperson for the Kazakh Transport Ministry told TASS.
"Based on the standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Annex 13, the Kazakh Transport Ministry’s commission investigating the aircraft incident will publish a preliminary report summarizing the established facts and providing information about the course of the investigation once all facts and materials are carefully assessed," the official said.
Annex 13 to the ICAO Convention on International Civil Aviation, which details protocols for aircraft accident and incident investigation, particularly regulates the publication of preliminary and final reports on such incidents. According to the document, "the preliminary report shall be sent by facsimile, e-mail or airmail within 30 days of the accident unless the Accident/Incident Data Report has been sent by that time." For incidents involving aircraft exceeding 2,250 kilograms, the country conducting the investigation is required to send the preliminary report to the state of registry, operator, design and manufacturer, as well as to "any state that provided relevant information, significant facilities or experts," and ICAO.
Earlier, Kazakh Vice Transport Minister Talgat Lastayev announced that the preliminary results of the investigation were expected to be made public within 30 days. Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev, who heads the commission, in turn, said that the investigation is under Kazakhstan's jurisdiction but noted that Astana was ready to cooperate with other countries.
An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 plane en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Russia’s Grozny in Chechnya crash-landed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on December 25. According to the latest data, the aircraft was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members, including citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Tragically, 38 people were killed. The Kazakh Transport Ministry said earlier that they were studying data retrieved from the black boxes.