Russian charter flight with 6 people disappears over Afghanistan; crash reported

KABUL, Afghanistan – Russian aviation authorities said on Sunday, January 21, a Russian-registered plane with six people thought to be on board disappeared from radar screens over Afghanistan the previous night, after local Afghan police said they had received reports of a crash.

Russian aviation authorities said in a statement the plane was a charter ambulance flight traveling from India, via Uzbekistan to Moscow on a French-made Dassault Falcon 10 jet manufactured in 1978.

Police in northern Afghanistan received reports of a plane crash in Badakhshan province, a provincial police spokesperson said on Sunday.

India’s civil aviation authority said that the plane crash was not a scheduled commercial flight or an Indian chartered aircraft and that “more details are awaited.”

The Afghan provincial police spokesperson said in a statement the crash had taken place overnight in a remote, mountainous region of Badakhshan in Afghanistan’s far north.

He said there were no confirmed details on the type of plane, cause of the crash or casualties. – Rappler.com