More than 30 passengers are dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, reports say. The Embraer 190 passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia had 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced. As of Wednesday afternoon, those authorities said there were 38 dead and 29 injured survivors. Flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Officials did not immediately explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash came shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone activity has shut airports in the area in the past and the nearest Russian airport on the plane's flight path was closed on Wednesday morning. Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan, leaving 38 dead, 29 survivors - Headed to Russia #swpg