An Afghan passenger plane carrying 44 people, including six foreigners, crashed yesterday in a mountainous northern region where poor weather was hampering efforts to locate it, officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Rescuers were on their way to the crash site near the 3,800m- high Salang Pass, a major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north. The plane, on a flight from the northern city of Kunduz, went down about 100km from Kabul, Kabul International Airport Police Chief Mohammed Asif Jabar Khil said.
Interior ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the plane was operated by Pamir Airways, a private Afghan airline. He said the Afghan government asked NATO for assistance.
NATO said a manned fixed-wing aircraft had been dispatched to the last known position of the missing plane, but poor weather was hampering the aerial search.
Two NATO helicopters have been dispatched to the area and other helicopters with the international coalition are on standby at Bagram Air Field and the Kabul airport to assist in any rescue effort, NATO said in a statement.
“The weather is very bad,” said General Rajab, commander of the Salang Pass for the Afghan Ministry of Public Works, who goes by only one name. “It is snowing. There is flooding.”
Kabul-based Pamir Airways started operations in 1995. According to its Web site, the airline uses Antonov AN-24 aircraft on all its Kunduz-to-Kabul flights. The two-engine turboprop can carry a maximum of 52 passengers, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
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