BAKU (Azerbaijan), Dec 29 (Bernama-AA) -- The bodies of 24 Azerbaijani citizens killed in an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) passenger plane crash near Aktau, Kazakhstan, have been brought to the capital Baku, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
The bodies were brought to Heydar Aliyev International Airport by plane and received by officials from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health late on Saturday night.
The bodies, which include three crew members and 21 passengers, will first undergo autopsy before being handed over to their families.
On Thursday, Baku had received 14 injured passengers and the bodies of four more from the crash site.
The AZAL flight, en route from Baku to Grozny in Russia's Chechen Republic, crashed 3 kilometres (1.8 miles) from Aktau on the Caspian Sea coast.
Kazakh authorities reported that 38 people were killed in the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft, which had 67 people on board, while 29 survived. Investigations into the incident are ongoing in both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Initial statements indicated a bird collision as a possible cause of the crash, though footage from the site revealed large holes in the tail section of the aircraft, leading to speculation of a possible attack.
Earlier Thursday, senior Azerbaijani officials confirmed to Anadolu reports suggesting the plane crash was caused by a Russian missile system.
-- BERNAMA-AA
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