All 104 on plane feared dead

2005-02-05 20:29

Kabul - The wreckage of a missing Afghan jet was found Saturday in mountains east of the capital Kabul with all 104 people on board feared dead, an interior ministry spokesman said.

"So far we don't think there are any survivors," interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.

"The plane is completely destroyed."

The wreckage was found in mountains 20km east of Kabul at around 0930 GMT during a search operation by Afghan police, army and peacekeeping troops from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), he said.

The area has been blanketed by heavy snow this week and Afghan officials said bad weather was preventing search teams from reaching the wreckage on the ground to check for any possible survivors.

The Boeing 737 of the private airline Kam Air went missing on Thursday during a domestic flight from the western city of Herat to Kabul.

ISAF helicopters found the wreckage and the Nato-lead peacekeeping force then deployed a specialized mountain rescue team to the site.

There were 23 confirmed foreign nationals aboard the aircraft, including six Americans, one Iranian, three Italians, nine Turks and four Russian crew members, official sources from the countries or companies said.

"Apache helicopters from ISAF spotted the wreckage and a team of mountain rescue specialists is on site," Poulain added.

A Canadian ISAF soldier questioned near the crash site said a camp had been established at the base of the mountain, where the wreckage was visible.

The mountain was so steep the operation could "take days", said the soldier.

Afghan General Zahir Azimi, who flew over the crash site, said bad weather was preventing the search for crash victims and the operation would resume on Sunday.

"After the crash site was spotted, I flew in a helicopter with some ISAF helicopters down to the site, but since the cloud was too low on the crash site we could not land and we will resume the search operation tomorrow," he said.

Kam Air owner Zmarai Kamgar confirmed the wreckage of the plane had been found but was also unable to elaborate on the fate of the passengers.

"I am on my way to the site but cannot talk about the fate of the passengers, it is premature to say anything about them," he said earlier.

Kabul is surrounded by mountains and Afghanistan's rugged landscape, 40% of which is 1 800m or more above sea level, presents a challenge to pilots.

Three American women working for the US-based Management Science for Health company were probably on the plane, according to one of the firm's officials.

The Turks were civilians working in Afghanistan for firms based in their own country, officials in Ankara said.

The Russians were the plane's captain, a steward and two air hostesses, foreign ministry spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko said in Moscow.

- AFP