A man who survived the devastating Christmas Day plane crash in Kazakhstan has spoken out about the terrifying experience, including how he felt upon impact.
Very few people in history have survived a plane crash, but Subhonkul Rakhimov and 28 others defied the odds and now live to tell the tale – although he didn’t think he would.
Rakhimov was onboard Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 on Christmas Day (December 25) en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, capital of the Chechnya region in southern Russia.
38 people have sadly died following a plane crash in Kazakhstan (Meiramgul Kussainova/Anadolu via Getty Images)
But the aircraft, an Embraer 190, ran into trouble near Grozny – where it already attempted to land three times, according to flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov, who spoke with The New York Times.
It eventually crashed on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan, with officials stating that there were 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, 6 Kazakh citizens, 3 Kyrgyz citizens on board. 38 lives were lost in the devastating crash.
A video of Rakhimov recording a heartbreaking ‘last message’ to his wife as the plane was going down has been posted on social media.
He began filming when he realized the plane was losing altitude. In the video, the oxygen masks are also seen down for some of the passengers, with many others heard panicking and crying.
Rakhimov was also heard praying as he repeatedly flipped the camera on his face and to the chaos on the plane.
Miraculously, he survived the crash and has now spoken about what he felt on impact.
“I thought that was my last prayer,” he told the Reuters via a telephone call from a hospital bed in Baku.
Rakhimov, along with Asadov and fellow passenger Aydan Rahimli, explained to The New York Times and to Azerbaijan TV station, that when they were ‘struck in the air’, some panicked passengers began to stand up.
Rakhimov told Reuters that he heard a bang from outside the main body of the aircraft and after he saw the damage he believed it was about to collapse.
It remains unclear what caused the fatal crash (Issa Tazhenbayev/Anadolu via Getty Images)
He explained that upon impact with the floor his body twisted over and over again until all of a sudden it was silent, that’s when he began to hear moaning from his fellow passengers and flight attendants.
“I realized that we have landed,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do — whether to laugh or cry.”
Meanwhile, Asadov and Rahimli also survived but unlike Rakhimov, they were sat at the back of the plane.
Azerbaijan Airlines has suggested that the plane had suffered ‘physical and technical external interference,’ as per translation from the New York Times. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russian officials have gone on to launch an investigation into the crash
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and images which some readers may find distressing.
A woman who survived the deadliest plane crash in history has opened up about ‘rallying’ herself after impact.
On March 27, 1977, as a result of a bombing incident at their destination airport, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan American Flight 1736 – both Boeing 747 airliners – were diverted to Los Rodeos Airport (now called Tenerife North) in Tenerife.
When both planes tried to take off again from the island, they collided on the runway and a total of 583 people were killed – the crash remaining ‘the deadliest in aviation history’.
Joani was on the Pan American flight (aviation-images.com/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Los Rodeos airport became overwhelmed by the number of diversions redirected there as a result of the terrorist attack at the Gran Canaria airport. Couple that with poor weather conditions, a lack of communication between pilots of the KLM Flight 480 and air traffic control, tragedy struck.
When the KLM flight attempted to take off from the airport, the Pan Am aircraft was using the runway to taxi and the vehicles collided.
“All 248 passengers and crew aboard the KLM flight were killed. There were also 335 fatalities and 61 survivors on the Pan Am flight,” the Federal Aviation Administration reports.
And one of the 61 survivors on the Pan Am flight was Joani Feathers, who was with her boyfriend at the time, Jack Ridout – the pair travelling to the Canary Islands to board a Mediterranean cruise.
Joan – aged 27 at the time – told The Daytona Beach Journal she remembered being nervous about the KLM plane and how close it was to their plane on the runway.
She recalled feeling the plane veer sharply to the left just before the crash and then the next memory she has is looking up and seeing the roof of the plane exposed, small fires set alight and debris scattered.
The crash is considered the worst aviation disaster in history (Tony Comiti/Sygma via Getty Images)
Joani reflected: “All my rings had come off my fingers. My shoes came off.”
She looked around for Jack, who she spotted hanging over the seat in front of him.
His head had a large cut on it, but they were both alive. The same could not be said for those around them.
Around the pair lay bodies of other passengers, some on fire, others left in a horrifying state from the impact of the collision.
Joani recalled just not wanting to ‘burn up’ and her and Jack knowing they needed to act – and act fast.
Drawing on her law enforcement training, Joani took in her surroundings and got to work, adding Jack ‘rallied’ with her. She undid her seat belt and the pair managed to manoeuvre their way over to where the plane’s door was – or what was left of it.
The drop below was around two stories high, however, a man urged Joani to jump, encouraging her that he’d ‘catch’ her. She slid down part of the way before walling the rest, missing the man and landing on the ground.
Not even noticing what injuries she ascertained during the collision and her fall to the ground, Joani just immediately began to run.
Joani was one of the 61 people to survive the tragedy (Tony Comiti/Sygma via Getty Images)
While running for her life, Joanni murmured: “No. No. I can’t believe this is happening.”
Jack wasn’t far behind her, having stayed to try and help a stewardess get an escape raft out – devastatingly, it’s reported an explosion occurred and the stewardess was killed.
Jack made it to Joani just in time, the whole aircraft exploding moments after he reached her standing by a fence around 50-100 yards from the plane, Joani recalling the plane going ‘up like an atom bomb’.
The crash left Joani ‘black and blue’ all over, but remarkably without any major physical trauma. Jack suffered the cut to his head, badly burned hands and internal injuries.
Joani experienced periodic depression after the crash but has found comfort through her work, noting while the incident is ‘always’ on her mind when she steps onto a plane, she has ‘a great life’ and can now ‘sleep at night’ so feels ‘blessed’.
As for her and Jack, the pair ended their romantic relationship but remain friends.
