Baku - Aktau

On December 23, 2005 at 10:40 PM, Baku - Aktau experienced a crash involving Antonov AN-140, operated by Azerbaijan Airlines - AZAL Airlines, with the event recorded near Nardaran Absheron.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

23 people were known to be on board, 23 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 18, passenger fatalities: 18, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. On a flight from Baku to Aktau in difficult weather conditions at night when took off with caged gyro horizons, so the crew lost spatial orientation. The aircraft entered a steep right downward spiral and crashed on the shore of the Caspian Sea near Nardaran, some 35 km northeast of Baku, less than five minutes after takeoff. All 5 crew and 18 passengers were killed, among them were 15 Azeris, one Briton, one Australian, one Turkish, one Georgian and 4 Kazakh.

Aircraft reference details include registration 4K-AZ48, MSN 36525307036, year of manufacture 2004.