The exercise had begun 2 days earlier in Kazakhstan’s sector of the sea under the naval forces’ commander, Captain 1st Rank Kanat Niyazbayev, with more than 500 personnel: the crews of the ships, the coastal units, the border service’s coast guard in Mangystau and the air-defence forces, Tengrinews wrote, citing the ministry. The cause, in the ministry’s words, was “a sharp deterioration of the weather and a strengthening of the wind”, and the search that followed used the navy’s ships, the emergencies ministry, aircraft and the coast guard. By mid-afternoon the count was 9 dead, 3 saved and 7 being searched for.
The ministry’s press service gave the count in 3 sentences, 9 dead recorded “at this moment”, 3 rescued with one of them in hospital, and the search for the others continuing, and it sent its own commission to the coast under the minister, Lieutenant General of Aviation Dauren Kosanov. Bektenov’s commission, formed at 15:12, seats the defence minister, the akim of Mangystau region, the ministries of labour, emergencies, health and transport, the chief military prosecutor and the border service; its 2 tasks in the prime minister’s order are the causes of the deaths and help for the families.
By mid-afternoon the count was 9 dead, 3 saved and 7 being searched for.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry wrote on X at 14:57 that it hoped “for the safe rescue of the missing and the swift recovery of the injured”, APA reported. The exercise’s stated aim, as the ministry announced it, was the professional training of personnel, the combat readiness of ship crews and the coordination of forces and means; the commission’s report will say what the weather did to the third of those.
Update, 25 September: by Friday noon the ministry’s count was 17 swept into the sea, 14 dead and 3 rescued, and five officers were detained; see “The Caspian search ends at 14 dead and 3 rescued as five officers are detained, the Navy’s chief of staff among them”.