Afghan airliner crashes in mountains with 43 onboard
Source: Agencies |
May 18, 2010, Tuesday
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A DOMESTIC flight operated by Afghanistan's Pamir Airways with 38 passengers and five crew on board, including six foreigners, crashed in the country's inaccessible, mountainous Hindu Kush region near Kabul yesterday, officials said.
The airplane was en route from the northern city of Kunduz to the capital and went missing at about 8am.
Rain and snow have hampered efforts by NATO and Afghan teams to find the plane's wreckage and there is no word on casualties.
"I can confirm that an aircraft carrying 38 passengers plus five crew has crashed somewhere in Salang Pass," said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary.
Three Britons were on board the flight, said the British Embassy in Kabul. One American was also on the plane, said the United States Embassy in the city.
The Salang pass lies around 100 kilometers north of Kabul at an altitude of about 4,000 meters.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but it came amid cloudy and rainy weather in Kabul and its surrounding areas.
The head of Pamir Airways and officials from the interior and transport ministries went to the Salang pass to help the search but no wreckage had been found yet.
A deputy minister for civil aviation and transport, Raaz Mohammad Alami, said six of the passengers onboard the Antonov 24 aircraft were foreigners. He had no further details on their identities.
One Afghan passenger on board worked for GTZ, a German state aid organization.
"One of our national staff members was on board this aircraft," said Andreas Clausing, head of Germany's development agency in Afghanistan.
The terrain and weather in the mountains around Kabul are extremely inhospitable and it could take some time before the aircraft is found.
Pamir Airways is one of three major private Afghan airlines that operates mostly domestic routes across Afghanistan.
Aircraft belonging to the military and civilian contractors crash fairly regularly in Afghanistan, although crashes involving planes from commercial carriers are less common.
The last major crash involving a passenger aircraft in Afghanistan happened in February 2005, when a Boeing 737 operated by private Afghan carrier Kam Air crashed in a snow storm in a similar area near Kabul, killing 104 passengers and crew.
The airplane was en route from the northern city of Kunduz to the capital and went missing at about 8am.
Rain and snow have hampered efforts by NATO and Afghan teams to find the plane's wreckage and there is no word on casualties.
"I can confirm that an aircraft carrying 38 passengers plus five crew has crashed somewhere in Salang Pass," said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary.
Three Britons were on board the flight, said the British Embassy in Kabul. One American was also on the plane, said the United States Embassy in the city.
The Salang pass lies around 100 kilometers north of Kabul at an altitude of about 4,000 meters.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but it came amid cloudy and rainy weather in Kabul and its surrounding areas.
The head of Pamir Airways and officials from the interior and transport ministries went to the Salang pass to help the search but no wreckage had been found yet.
A deputy minister for civil aviation and transport, Raaz Mohammad Alami, said six of the passengers onboard the Antonov 24 aircraft were foreigners. He had no further details on their identities.
One Afghan passenger on board worked for GTZ, a German state aid organization.
"One of our national staff members was on board this aircraft," said Andreas Clausing, head of Germany's development agency in Afghanistan.
The terrain and weather in the mountains around Kabul are extremely inhospitable and it could take some time before the aircraft is found.
Pamir Airways is one of three major private Afghan airlines that operates mostly domestic routes across Afghanistan.
Aircraft belonging to the military and civilian contractors crash fairly regularly in Afghanistan, although crashes involving planes from commercial carriers are less common.
The last major crash involving a passenger aircraft in Afghanistan happened in February 2005, when a Boeing 737 operated by private Afghan carrier Kam Air crashed in a snow storm in a similar area near Kabul, killing 104 passengers and crew.
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