Rescuers searching for survivors of a plane crash in Afghanistan have found the black box that could provide clues to the cause of the disaster, an official said yesterday.
Search operations resumed early yesterday after being called off at dusk on Friday because of high winds, fog and snow, though it was becoming increasingly clear that no survivors would be found almost a week after the crash.
“We did find the black box yesterday,” said Nangialai Qalatwal, spokesman for the transportation and civil aviation ministry.
“It is too soon to say what caused the crash,” he said, adding that the voice recorder in the black box could help determine what happened as the plane was nearing its destination.
The ageing Pamir Airways plane came down in bad weather on Monday during a scheduled flight to Kabul from the northern province of Kunduz.
It was carrying six crew and 38 passengers when it crashed into a mountainside 20km from Kabul.
The wreckage was located on Wednesday in an area called Surkh-e-Parsa in the Shakar Darah mountains in Kabul Province, at about 4,100m.
Conditions for recovery have been hampered by the harsh weather, with rescuers having to climb for two hours to reach the crash site, and then two hours to bring down the bodies.
“Most of the bodies were found and transferred from the crash site. There are still some bodies under the snow,” he said.
Authorities had originally believed the Antonov 24 turboprop plane came down about 120km north of the capital.
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