“We are making an emergency landing. Hold on tight, the impact will be strong. After landing, exit the plane quickly.”
Rinat Asanov, a passenger from Kyrgyzstan and one of 29 people who survived the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan on December 25, recalled the announcement by a flight attendant shortly before the violent impact that killed 38 others on the aircraft.
Asanov, who suffered a severe head injury, fractures and bruises, was recently discharged from a hospital in Bishkek and was interviewed by AKIpress, a news agency based in the Kyrgyz capital.
Azerbaijan alleges the Embraer 190 plane diverted from a planned landing in Grozny, Chechnya to Aktau, Kazakhstan after being accidentally hit by Russian ground fire, and Kazakh authorities have said preliminary results of an investigation are expected this month. Most of the 67 people on board, including five crewmembers, were from Azerbaijan, and the second-largest group was from Russia. Six Kazakh citizens died. All three Kyrgyz nationals on the plane survived.
Asanov, who was in a coma for three days in a Kazakh hospital before being transferred to intensive care in Kyrgyzstan, described a “good mood” as the flight got underway that morning. He promptly fell asleep on the plane.
“Suddenly, a loud sound was heard, similar to an explosion,” he told AKIpress. “I woke up in panic and everyone was crying.”
Seconds later, another explosion.
“I was confused and didn’t understand what was happening. The flight attendants tried to calm down us saying: “Don’t panic, everything will be fine, we will land safely.”´
Then came the warning about the emergency landing.
“It’s difficult to imagine how one should feel at such moments,” Asanov said in the interview, which was published on Tuesday.
“First I believed that we could land with no consequences. It was very scary, I felt my vision darken. Later I realized I had lost consciousness. I was sitting in the middle of the cabin, near the wing. As I was later told, passengers in this area and in the tail section of the plane were less injured. However, many in the front part of the plane were severely affected.”
Other passengers have given similar accounts of events leading to the crash, and small holes in part of the fuselage appear to support the theory that the plane was sprayed with shrapnel. Edil Baisalov, Kyrgyzstan’s deputy Cabinet chairman, visited the Kyrgyz survivors while they were being treated at the National Hospital in Bishkek. He said the country is “incredibly lucky” that they survived and he thanked Kazakhstan for rescue and treatment efforts, according to 24.kg, a Kyrgyz news agency. The two other Kyrgyz survivors were less severely injured than Asanov and were discharged from hospital care before him.
Asanov, an IT student at the International University of Kyrgyzstan, previously worked for two years as a surveyor on construction sites in Russia. He is in his 20s. Since the accident, he has found strength in his religious faith and a feeling that he has a second chance at life, according to AKIpress.
“Now I am gradually recovering, but rehabilitation is still ahead,” he said.
