18 passengers and 5 members of the crew died as a result of a jet crash near Baku (Nardaran village, outskirts Baku) on Friday at 22:27pm [local hours], Trend reports.
AN-100-140 airliner, belonging to AZAL state company, took off Heydar Aliyev international airport at 22:19pm [local hours] to carry out Baku-Aktau flight. Within several minutes the communication with the aircraft interrupted and it disappeared from the display of the radars. Within 8 minutes of the flight the operator at the airports received a signal on the crash of AN-100-140. To diminish the scale of the crash the pilots were directed the airliner to the sea nearby.
Zakir Garalov, the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan, Vice Premier Abid Sharifov, employees of the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of National Security arrive din the scene of accident after a while. A special commission has been established to launch investigation into the case.
РђN-140-100 airliner was purchased under a contract signed between AZAl state
company and Kharkov state aviation enterprise on 8 July 2004. The contract with the estimated value of $36.4m (4 airliners each with the cost of $9.1m) also envisages training of flight personnel and technical support to the airliner.
Maximal take-off mass of AN-140-100 comprises 21.5 tons, while maximal mass of the commercial load is 6 tons, maximal fueling mass вЂ" 4.44 tons, cruising speed - 450 km/h, which can be increased to 537 km/h. The airliner can take 52 passengers on board.
