The crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan has killed 38 of 67 people on board. Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijani capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons that aren’t fully clear yet.

Kazakh authorities have recovered the flight data recorder and an investigation is under way. Shortly after the crash, reports from Russian state-controlled TV said the most likely cause was a strike from a flock of birds.

HAUNTING footage shows passengers on board the doomed Azerbaijan Airlines flight just moments before it crashed – killing 38 people. Dozens of passengers, including children, miraculously

Russia's civil aviation authority ... "It would be wrong to make hypotheses before investigators make their verdict." Kazakhstan's parliamentary Speaker Maulen Ashimbayev also warned against rushing to conclusions based on pictures of the plane's fragments ...

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan to Russia to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. A Kazakh official said 38 people had been killed,

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to Grozny in Russia was carrying 67 people when it crashed near Aktau early Wednesday. Kazakh officials said 29 people survived.

Russia’s state aviation authority said the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had been trying to make an emergency landing. The Kazakh authorities said that at least 29 people survived.

Russia is moving forward on its strategic plan to secure a fourth export route for natural gas supplies to China that it has been discussing for months with authorities in Kazakhstan. The proposed pipeline will cross the northern and northeastern regions ...

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at a news conference that it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, pointing to bad weather as the reason the plane diverted from its original course. "This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people," he said.

Footage shows the moment an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashes in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Sources say it was downed by the Russian air defence system. Video credit: Social media

Flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan to Russia to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea,