Stephen Graham wrote:NATO Searching for Missing Afghan Jet
By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan and NATO (news - web sites) forces launched a ground and air search operation Friday for an Afghan passenger jet carrying 104 people that disappeared from radar screens during a snowstorm near the mountain-ringed capital. Three Americans were believed to have been on board.
The Kam Air Boeing 737-200 took off Thursday afternoon from the western Afghan city of Herat bound for Kabul, but it was unable to land because of bad weather. The airline initially said the plane was diverted to neighboring Pakistan, but officials there said it never entered their airspace.
"The last time that we have been told that the aircraft was seen on radar was about 3.1 miles east of Kabul," Afghan Transport Minister Enayatullah Qasemi said at a news conference Friday. "Since this morning we have begun a search and rescue operation in the area."
Kam Air president Zamarai Kamgar said there were 96 passengers on board, including seven foreigners. However, a Massachusetts-based aid group said three of its American staff were missing, Turkey said nine of its citizens were on the plane, and Italy said one passenger was Italian.
Kamgar said the eight-member flight crew included six Russians and two Afghans.
Kabul is surrounded by snowcapped mountains, raising the hazards for planes flying in bad weather. The area near the Pakistan border is so remote that officials suspect militants including Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) have hidden there since the fall of Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s former Taliban government in 2001.
Still, the clouds lifted Friday afternoon, improving the prospects of finding and reaching any survivors if the plane did crash.
NATO, which has an 8,000-member peacekeeping force in Kabul, said it was using Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, dozens of ground troops and an unmanned drone to search for the plane.
Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi said hundreds of Afghan troops were heading for Khaki Jabar, a district southeast of Kabul with few roads and steep ridges rising to more than 13,000 feet. An Associated Press photographer saw two helicopters flying over the area and a column of German armored vehicles moving along a mountain road.
The private airline's mainly domestic flights are popular with Afghans wealthy enough to avoid long journeys over bumpy roads. They are also used by aid and reconstruction workers.
Three passengers were believed to be American women working for Management Sciences for Health, a non-profit group based in Cambridge, Mass., said William Schiffbauer, a company representative in Kabul.
A U.S Embassy spokeswoman said officials were still checking on how many Americans were on board.
Qasemi said the pilot last contacted the Kabul control tower at about 3 p.m. Thursday to ask for a weather update and was cleared for landing by Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military base north of Kabul with overall responsibility for Afghan airspace, moments before it disappeared from radar screens.
He said officials had checked with local air fields and those in neighboring countries without finding any trace of the plane.
The last major plane crash in Afghanistan was on Nov. 27 last year, when a transport plane under contract to the U.S. military crashed in central Bamiyan province, killing three American soldiers and three American civilian crew.
The most recent commercial crash was on March 19, 1998, when an Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 slammed into a mountain close to the area being searched on Friday, killing all 45 passengers and crew.
Kam Air was the first private airline established in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and made its maiden flight on the Kabul-Herat route in November 2003. The airline operates a fleet of leased Boeing and Antonov aircraft on domestic Afghan routes as well as to Dubai.
NATO Searching for Missing Afghan Jet
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Sharpshooter
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NATO Searching for Missing Afghan Jet
Oh, Shit
DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!
SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.
SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.
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Sea Skimmer
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Clearly that is not the case.
"Afghan and Nato sources have denied earlier reports that the wreckage of the plane had been found."
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Hmm, they changed the article. Earlier this morning it said that they'd found it, but I guess it was one of those reports that was denied.Sea Skimmer wrote:Clearly that is not the case.
"Afghan and Nato sources have denied earlier reports that the wreckage of the plane had been found."
DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!
SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.
SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.