Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the Azerbaijani Airlines plane making a steep descent before slamming into the ground in a fireball in western Kazakhstan.

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.

At least 38 people have died in a passenger plane crash in Kazakhstan after it was forced to divert from its destination in southern Russia. Investigations into the causes of the incident are still ongoing.

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.

Flight was operating in an area where Moscow’s air defenses have battled Ukrainian drones in recent weeks.

According to Kazakhstan's Transport Ministry, the plane operated by Azerbaijan Airlines had 37 Azerbaijani passengers, 16 Russians, six Kazakhs, and three Kyrgyz, along with five crew members on board.

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to Grozny in Russia was carrying 67 people when it crashed near Aktau early Wednesday. 25 people survived, Kazakhstan's emergencies ministry said.

An Embraer passenger jet crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people, after diverting from an area of Russia that Moscow has recently defended against Ukrainian drone attacks.

Speculation has emerged that Russian air defenses may have played a role, with some questioning, "This doesn't seem like birds."

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft crashed near Kazakhstan's Aktau Airport close to the Caspian Sea on Wednesday morning.

The Russian authorities are trying to conceal the fact of a drone attack on Chechnya. This attack may be connected to the crash of a passenger aircraft in Kazakhstan, according to Agentstvo.Novosti on Telegram.