MOSCOW (AFP) – A Russian plane believed to be carrying six people has crashed in mountainous north eastern Afghanistan, the air transport agency Rosaviatsia announced yesterday.
The Falcon 10 “disappeared from the radar” and communication was lost on Saturday evening, the federal agency said.
“According to preliminary information, six people were aboard the aircraft: four crew and two passengers.”
The two-engine business jet built by France’s Dassault in 1978 and owned by a company called Athletic Group and a private individual, was on a hospital flight from India to Uzbekistan and Russia.
The agency added that “the search to find the aircraft is continuing”. The Ria Novosti news agency said two passengers were Russians, one who was seriously ill, and the other her husband who had paid for the flight.
A provincial government official in Afghanistan told AFP the aircraft came down in Badakhshan province, which borders China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
“The plane has crashed but the location is not known yet. We have sent teams but they have not arrived yet,” said head of the provincial information department, Zabihullah Amiri.
The area of the crash is eight hours by road from the provincial capital Faizabad, said Amiri.