BAKU — Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev instructed his government to initiate a commission to investigate the cause of the Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crash on Wednesday when 38 passengers were killed as the plane attempted to make an emergency landing near the Kazakh city of Aktau.

“The commission's task is to fully investigate the matter, examine the causes of the crash and all its details, and provide information both to me and to the Azerbaijani public,” Aliyev said in an official briefing released by the Azerbaijani Presidency.

The Azerbaijani president says the matter needs to be fully uncovered, though he did not hint at what his government suspects is the cause behind the crash.

“The reasons for the crash are not yet known to us. There are various theories, but I believe it is premature to discuss them. The matter must be thoroughly investigated.”

The Azerbaijani leader said the public would be regularly informed of the commission’s findings and progress in the criminal case.

A total of 29 passengers on board the flight from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in Russia survived the crash and were transported to receive care for their wounds at nearby medical facilities.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev was flying himself at the time of the tragic accident. Aliyev was headed to St Petersburg to attend an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) hosted and organised by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

“When I was informed of this tragic incident during the flight. I immediately gave instructions for the plane to return to Baku. While still in the air, I issued the necessary directives and spoke with the prime minister,” Aliyev said.

Earlier reports suggested the plane, on its usual Baku-Grozny route, was forced to divert due to a bird strike.

Russian media speculated that the plane could have been shot down accidentally after air defence systems around the Chechen capital of Grozny mistaking it for a Ukrainian drone. Russia was reportedly actively repelling Ukrainian drone attacks in the region at the time of the crash. Euronews could not independently verify these claims.

Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure-eight once nearing the airport in Aktau. Its altitude moved up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.

FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming,” which “made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data,” referring to the information that allows flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight.

Social media videos gathered by AnewZ news channel appear to show the aircraft struggling to make an emergency landing and breaking up in a fireball as it hits the ground.

A spokesperson for Azerbaijan Airlines said the airline is cooperating with the investigation but has assured the public that all necessary medical and psychological support will be provided to victims of the crash and their families, regardless of nationality.

According to Azerbaijan Airlines, 37 passengers were Azerbaijani citizens. There were also 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani citizens. — Euronews