The video seen by Reuters shows the plane heading toward the ground at high speed with the landing gear down.
A few seconds after attempting to land, a huge fireball explodes.
The airline said the plane “made an emergency landing” about 3 kilometers from Aktau.
The plane took off from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku at 03:55 GMT on Wednesday and crashed around 06:28, according to data from flight tracking website Flightradar24.
The Embraer 190 aircraft was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members, the transport ministry said.
Most of the passengers were Azerbaijani citizens, but some also came from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations said 22 of the 25 known survivors had been taken to hospital.
Unconfirmed footage showed emergency responders pulling people out of the rubble and survivors crawling out.
Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have launched investigations into the cause of the accident. Embraer told the BBC it was “ready to support all relevant authorities”.
The BBC has contacted Azerbaijan Airlines for comment.
The aircraft involved was the Embraer E190, the Brazilian company a smaller competitor to Boeing and Airbus with a traditionally strong safety record.
