BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 29. The bodies of three crew members—pilots Igor Kshnyakin, Alexander Kalyaninov, and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva, who tragically died in the crash of an Embraer 190 aircraft operated by Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) near Aktau—have been transported to Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku for a farewell ceremony, TurkicWorld reports.
The ceremony will begin at 10:00 Baku time (GMT+4), where the city will honor the fallen crew members: Kshnyakin, Kalyaninov, and Aliyeva.
Notably, in the aftermath of the tragic crash, the remains of the three crew members—pilots Kshnyakin, Kalyaninov, and flight attendant Aliyeva—along with 21 other passengers, were returned to Azerbaijan’s Baku.
Earlier, the remains of four victims and 14 injured individuals were also delivered to Baku. The identification of the remaining victims of the disaster is currently underway.
To note, AZAL's Embraer 190 passenger plane on the Baku-Grozny route crashed 3 km away from Aktau airport on December 25.
A total of 67 people (62 passengers and 5 crew members) were on board the Embraer 190 airplane, flying Baku-Grozny, which crashed in Aktau.
Following the crash of the passenger airplane near Aktau, 27 people were hospitalized. Of them, 15 people are citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 8 of the Russian Federation, and 3 of the Kyrgyz Republic. The identity of one person has not been established yet.
Of the victims hospitalized, 11 are being treated in the intensive care unit, 13 - the traumatology department, two - the neurosurgery department, and one - the surgical department. These persons are under the control of professional doctors from Kazakhstan and those expelled from Azerbaijan and Russia. They were provided with prompt and specialized medical and psychological treatment.
Both crew pilots as well as the flight stewardess were lost, but two crew members survived.
December 26 has been declared a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
