Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev says that a criminal case was launched to probe into the Azerbaijan Airline passenger plane that crashed early on Wednesday in Kazakhstan killing at least 38 people.

President Ilham Aliyev, en route to the Russian Federation to attend the informal summit of the heads of state of CIS member countries in St. Pet

BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 25. President Ilham Aliyev, en route to the Russian Federation to attend the informal summit of the heads of state of CIS member countries in St. Petersburg today, was informed about the plane crash while in the Russian airspace and promptly instructed the aircraft to return, Trend reports.

General, has sent a letter of condolences to President Ilham Aliyev over the plane crash near Aktau, Kazakhstan.

The Commission's work is to fully study the issue, investigate the causes and all details of the airplane crash, and inform me and the public of Azerbaijan, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in particular during a meeting at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in connection with the airplane crash,

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight was en route from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia, but was rerouted due to fog and crashed near the Aktau airport. A video from Turkey shows a cargo ship rolling onto its side at a port in Istanbul after an imbalance in the cargo load.