Heartbreaking footage has emerged of the Azerbaijani plane which crashed on Christmas Day, killing 38 people.

The flight from Azerbaijani capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus was diverted and the plane attempted to make an emergency landing 3km from Aktau.

There were 29 survivors of the crash, with 67 onboard in tota

Speaking at a news conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said: “The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing.”

It’s unclear what caused the pilot to attempt an emergency landing, but Russia’s aviation watchdog said preliminary reports suggested it may have been a bird strike, CNN reports.

According to Kazakh officials, those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals.

At the time of writing, 27 passengers are reported to have survived the devastating ordeal, while 38 lost their lives.

Because the plane burst into flames when it crashed, the deceased were discovered ‘in poor condition’.

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said: “The bodies are in poor condition, mostly burnt, all collected.

“Now they will be in the morgue, and identification will take place.”

Of the survivors, only one remains unidentified.

“She is unconscious, has no documents, and is in the hospital,” Bozumbayev said of the woman in question.

Mobile phone footage circulating online of the fatal crash appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball.

Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft lying upside in the grass.

The footage corresponded to the plane’s colours and its registration number.

Warning: Distressing content

Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure eight once nearing the airport in Aktau, its altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.

FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the aircraft had faced ‘strong GPS jamming’, which ‘made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data’, referring to the information that allows flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight.

Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.

The remains unclear what caused the fatal crash (Issa Tazhenbayev/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Azerbaijan’s state news agency, Azertac, said that an official delegation of Azerbaijan’s emergency situations minister, the deputy general prosecutor and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines were sent to Aktau to conduct an ‘on-site investigation’.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstani, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities have announced that they are investigating the crash as well.

Today, December 26, has been declared as a day of mourning in Azerbaijan by President Ilham Aliyev.

Passengers onboard an American Airlines flight to North Carolina stepped in to help a woman who was allegedly being subject to violent behavior from the man she was travelling with.

News of the alleged altercation was shared on Twitter by Epoch Times reporter Arjun Singh, who posted a video from the plane he had boarded in Miami, Florida on October 2.

The clip shows a number of people gathered around one row of seats, in front of which one man could be heard saying: “Don’t f***ing touch her.”

Alongside the clip, Singh claimed ‘several men’ had jumped in to subdue a man who was sitting in first class next to a female passenger.

The reporter said there had been a ‘violent incident’ which led to the response from the other passengers.

One of the men who responded to the alleged violence could also be heard shouting in the video, saying: “Get your f**king hands off of her right now. You touch her again, you’re gonna get f**king arrested.”

The passengers encouraged the woman to move to a different seat, after which the alleged aggressor claimed he had been slapped by the woman.

However, she hit back: “No, you weren’t assaulted. I put my hand over your mouth to make you shut up.”

The plane ended up arriving in North Carolina 26 minutes early, but Singh acknowledged that passengers weren’t ‘getting off soon’ as Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers then boarded the plane.

The officers escorted both the man and woman involved in the altercation away from the scene, after which passengers began to disembark.

Police escorted the passengers from the plane (X/@arjunswritings)

American Airlines addressed the incident in a statement to UNILAD, saying: “Two customers traveling together were engaged in an altercation aboard American Airlines flight 310, with service from Miami (MIA) to Charlotte (CLT) on Oct. 2.

“Local law enforcement responded and escorted the customers from the CLT airport.

“We do not tolerate violence, and we thank our team members for their professionalism in managing a difficult situation.”

On its website, American Airlines states that the safety and comfort of its customers and team members is the company’s ‘top priority’.

“We will respond seriously to any language or behavior that threatens the well-being or functionality of our crew or any American Airlines team member,” it says. “Violent or inappropriate actions may result in the denial of boarding, removal from the terminal or legal prosecution.”

It is currently unclear whether any arrests were made as a result of the incident.

UNILAD has contacted the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department for comment.

A pilot issued a heartbreaking message to his mom in his final moments before his plane crashed.

In 1978, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight 182 crashed and killed 144 people in what was then labelled as America‘s deadliest plane crash.

Those who died included passengers on the plane, as well as crew members and people on the ground.

Against the odds: Routine flight turns deadly

On the clear September day in 1978, it was a ‘perfect’ day for flying and, while there’s said to be around a 1 in 1.2 million chance of a plane crash taking place, this aircraft happened to be that one.

The PSA flight collided with another aircraft – Cessna Skyhawk N7711G.

Following the collision, the two planes crashed in San Diego.

The moments leading up to the fatal day were recorded via the cockpit.

Disaster strikes

Local flight controllers had warned the Boeing 727 crew to stay aware of the Cessna that was also in the area. But disaster struck when they lost sight of it.

The pilots presumed that the smaller plane was behind them when they could no longer see it; however, it was just below them.

Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 crash site. (SDASM Archives/Flickr)

The Cessna proceeded to crash into the PSA plane’s right wing and exploded on impact, killing pilots Martin Kazy Jr and David Boswell.

The large Boeing plane stayed airborne, but ultimately ended up crashing into the ground at speeds of 300mph.

Heartbreaking final moments

All 135 people on board died, with only four of their bodies being found intact.

Prior to hitting the ground, Captain James McFeron, 42, told passengers to ‘brace themselves’.

“Tower, we’re going down, this is PSA,” he proceeded to tell air traffic controllers, adding: “This is it, baby!”

Then an unidentified voice in the cockpit – thought to be McFeron, first officer Robert Eugene Fox, or flight engineer Martin J. Wahne – issued a message to their mom knowing that their death was imminent.

More than 100 people lost their lives on the fateful day in 1978. (SDASM Archives/Flickr)

“Ma, I love ya,” he says.

Horror crash site

The crash site was compared to something from an apocalyptic movie, with many of the deceased’s bodies being dismembered.

“One alley was filled with just arms, legs and feet,” said Gary Jaus, who was still in training at San Diego Police Academy at the time, to San Diego Magazine.

“I worked at Clairemont Mortuary before I became a cop – I was no stranger to dead bodies, but I wasn’t ready to see the torso of a stewardess slammed against a car.”

Other body parts were reported to have landed in trees and on rooftops.

Seven people were killed on the ground, while around 22 houses were damaged or destroyed from the impact.

Warning: This article contains graphic description and video which some readers may find distressing

A black box recording revealed the horrifying moment an aircraft lost control and crashed after a pilot allowed their kids in the cockpit.

In March 1994, relief pilot Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky was one of three pilots on a flight traveling from Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia, to Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong, China.

However, it wasn’t just the three pilots who ended up in the cockpit, but Yaroslav’s two children too.

The Russian airline Aeroflot – Flight 593 – had 63 passengers, nine flight attendants, and three pilots on board.

Two of those on board the flight were Yaroslav’s two teenage children – 12-year-old Yana and 16-year-old Eldar.

The pair ended up coming inside the cockpit to visit their dad, who then decided to let them play with the aircraft’s controls while the plane was on autopilot.

The family’s interaction was caught on audio recording by the plane’s black box, with Yana being heard complaining to her dad, before he tells her: “Don’t run there, or they’ll fire us.”

Despite autopilot being turned on, meaning the plane couldn’t be controlled by the children, when it was Eldar’s go to have a play, he ended up switching off autopilot for around 30 seconds, having pushed the controls too hard.

In this time, the teenager ended up in control of the aircraft’s movements which would lead to a catastrophic tragedy.

When the plane started to veer right and exit the flight path, Eldar realised something was wrong.

Within seconds, the three pilots on board noticed too, but by that point, the aircraft had already swerved at almost a 90-degree angle – a move that the Airbus A310 aircraft can’t handle.

The plane started to descend rapidly, before stalling and automatically switching into a dive to recover itself.

Eventually, the pilots managed to regain control and pull the plane out of the dive but misjudged the force, causing the aircraft to stall again.

“Go to the back! Go to the back, Eldar!” Yaroslav can be heard yelling as the pilots lose control. “You see the danger, don’t you?”

As all three pilots try desperately to adjust the mistake and get the aircraft back on track, with Yaroslav telling his kids: “Get out now! All is normal.”

Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky allowed his children to play with the plane’s controls (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

That’s when the recording suddenly cuts out.

The pilots managed to recover the spinning aircraft, but by that point, it had lost too much altitude and crashed into the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range, tragically killing everyone onboard.

After the crash, investigations found no evidence of technical failure, and that the crash was most likely caused by the children being allowed to take control of the flight.

Perhaps the saddest discovery made was that if the three pilots onboard had left the recovery up to the autopilot, rather than attempting to fix the problem manually, the issue would have resolved itself and all the passengers would have survived.

An Aeroflot spokesperson said at the time that it had tightened cockpit discipline following the incident.