Missing plane's wreckage found

2005-02-05 14:02

Kabul - Nato helicopters searching for an Afghan jetliner that disappeared during a snowstorm with 104 people aboard found the wreckage of the plane on Saturday in the forbidding mountains east of the capital, and officials said it was unlikely there were any survivors.

Major Karen Tissot Van Patot, an alliance spokesperson, said two helicopter gunships spotted the tail and other parts of the plane on Saturday afternoon about 30km east of Kabul at an altitude of 3 300m.

Tissot said helicopters had dropped Slovenian mountain rescue teams at the scene. She had no word on any survivors, but officials said it was unlikely anyone could have come through two nights in subzero conditions, even if they had survived the initial impact.

Officials said Nato ground teams and about 200 Afghan national army troops were also arriving at the crash site, and preparing for the grisly job of picking through the wreckage.

Collecting bodies

"It will be part of their duties to secure the area and collect the bodies," said Major Mohammed Arif Anes, an Afghan army spokesman.

The Kam Air Boeing 737-200 vanished from radar screens on Thursday afternoon as it approached Kabul airport in poor weather, sparking a massive search operation for the 96 passengers and eight crew, at least 21 of them foreigners.

There was no indication that the plane, which was arriving from the western Afghan city of Herat, was hijacked or brought down by a bomb, Defence Ministry spokesperson General Mohammed Zahir Azimi said.

If all are confirmed dead, it would be this war-wracked nation's deadliest air disaster.

Hundreds of Afghan and NATO forces began the search early Friday, but were hampered in their efforts by thick snow and freezing fog enveloping the tall mountains which ring the Afghan capital. Helicopters were held on the grounds for hours early Saturday by poor visibility.

Kam Air was the first private airline in post-Taliban Afghanistan and made its maiden flight on the Kabul-Herat route in November 2003. Its mainly domestic flights using leased Boeing and Antonov planes are popular with wealthy Afghans and also are used by aid and reconstruction workers.

However, there have been concerns about the safety of its planes as well as those of state-owned Ariana Airlines.

United Nations staff are banned from using either. However, spokeswoman Arianne Quentier confirmed on Saturday that an Italian man working as an architect for the UN Office for Project Services was on board.

Italian authorities said another Italian civilian and a navy captain were among the 96 passengers.

Turkey's prime ministry said Friday that nine Turks were aboard the missing plane.

Three others were American women working for Management Sciences for Health, a nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

- AP