An Afghan plane operated by Pamir Airways, vanished with its 44 passengers as it was somewhere in the Hindu Kush mountains, northern Afghanistan. The plane was on its way to Kabul, its capital. Myar Rasooli, the head of the Kabul airport, stated that there was no distress call. The missing plane is a 37-year old Soviet-made Antonov 24 twin turboprop that Pamir Airways had bought about three months ago. Zemari Bashary, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry had sought the help of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s International Security Assistance Force (NATO ISAF) for a search and rescue mission.
There were six foreigners reported aboard the plane, one of which was an American and three were British nationals. The rest that were aboard including the crew were Afghans, said the Deputy Transportation Minister Raz Mohammad Alami.
Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman stated the US and international involvement where he said, “ISAF is providing some search and rescue (capability) now for that, in terms of helicopter support, rotary aircraft, as well as, early on, some help in identifying the location that it went down.”
The search for survivors was suspended after dark but is to resume Tuesday. The western military stated that it had dispatched a fixed-wing aircraft and two helicopters to the area but had to call off the search after darkness and fog closed in.
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