First Officer Aleksandr Kalyaninov

Force in Play

Killed in crash; posthumously named National Hero of Azerbaijan

On December 25, 2024, Russian anti-aircraft fire shredded an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet carrying 67 people. The pilots—hydraulics destroyed, controls failing—flew the crippled Embraer 190 across the Caspian Sea for an emergency landing. They nearly made it. Thirty-eight people died in the crash near Aktau, Kazakhstan. Twenty-nine survived because of the crew's last-minute heroics.

Updated Dec 26, 2025