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Surviving cabin crew member of crashed AZAL plane: While flying over Grozny, the sound of an impact was heard

27 December 2024 16:54 (UTC +04:00)

“At 08:00 in the morning, the plane departed from Baku to Grozny. While flying over Grozny, the sound of an impact was heard,” Zulfugar Asadov, a cabin crew member who survived the plane crash, told APA.

According to Zulfugar Asadov, after that, he and his colleague quickly entered the cabin of the plane: “People were in panic, and we tried to calm them down. When I tried to move forward, I was struck on my arm. It felt as if someone had hit it with an axe. Holding my arm, I exited the cabin, and a third impact was felt. I told my colleague, ‘Let’s sit down.’ I took my kitchen towel, and with my colleague's help, tightly bandaged the wound. Afterward, we continued the flight.”

“The commander contacted us and said that we would perform a water landing. Through the microphone, passengers were informed to remain seated, fasten their seatbelts, and put on their life vests without inflating them, as inflating the vests would cause passengers to obstruct each other during the water landing, leading to trouble. However, shortly afterward, the pilot gave a new instruction that the landing would be on land, not water. If a water landing had been carried out, everyone could have died. External impacts had affected the plane’s engine, the plane had to make a hard landing; no other option was possible,” he added.

Zulfugar Asadov noted that if the plane had hit the ground wholly, no one would have survived: “I believe the pilot decided to direct the weight toward the front of the plane. When the plane struck the ground, the front section detached due to the impact, and the rear section skidded across the ground for some distance. Since the plane flipped upon crashing, the passengers inside were left upside down.”

He added that a rescue team arrived from Aktau after the crash: “When the plane hit the ground, I thought we would all die due to the shaking. I had no hope of survival. I just wish others had survived too. Thank God I’m alive, and that is thanks to the heroism of our crew’s commander and the second pilot.”

Farida
Maryam Surkhay