An oxygen tank exploded before the crash on board the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane that crashed near Aktau, said the Minister of Transport of Kazakhstan Marat Karabayev, quoted by Sputnik Kazakhstan.
According to him, this happened in the passenger cabin, and the people in it began to lose consciousness. The flight director at the Aktau tower received information about the incident at 10:53 a.m.
"The flight director immediately notified all emergency services - fire and medical personnel - about the arrival of the crashed plane at Aktau airport," Kazakhstan's transport minister said.
An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 flying from Baku to Grozny crashed on the morning of December 25 near the city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan.
There were five crew members and 62 passengers on board - 16 Russians, 37 Azerbaijanis, six from Kazakhstan and three from Kyrgyzstan.
According to the Kazakh Ministry of Health, 29 people survived. Nine injured Russians were taken to Moscow hospitals for treatment on a special flight of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The bodies of ten victims have been identified so far.