The moment before the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed into the ground has been caught on camera. The tragic jet crash killed 38 people as the aircraft erupted into a ball of flames.

The plane was carrying 67 passengers and five crew members before crashing near Aktau in Western Kazakhstan. The flight departed from Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, as it attempted to make its way to Grozny in Russia.

Known as the Embraer 190, the plane was instructed to reroute due to the official reason of “fog”.

The plane then made an emergency landing around three kilometres from Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, as a distress signal was sent out.

Heart-wrenching footage has emerged of a passenger onboard sending his wife a video moments before the plane crashed.

Meanwhile, footage showed the pilot saying the following just moments before the crash: “I can’t execute, control is lost.”

The clip also shows the other distressed people on the flight as oxygen masks drop from the ceiling. Life jackets issued by the aircraft have also been captured around the passengers necks as they brace themselves for what is yet to come.

It is understood that 29 people are reported to have miraculously survived the crash. They were found in the rear section of the aircraft, with the front being badly destroyed by fire.

Footage of the crash showed the plane making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball.

Injured passengers were later seen stumbling out of the wreckage as others were dragged out of the only intact part of the plane.

The majority of survivors are being treated in hospital with reports of seven being in a serious condition.

“They are receiving all the necessary medical care in hospitals in the region,” said the Ministry of Health. “23 ambulance teams were mobilised to the scene of the incident.”

Authorities in Kazakhstan have said a government commission had been set up to investigate what had happened. Officials had reportedly been ordered to fly to the site as well, to ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they needed.