Forces search for missing plane

2005-02-04 12:09

Kabul - Afghan and Nato forces launched a ground and air search on Friday for an Afghan passenger jet carrying 104 people after it disappeared from radar screens during a snowstorm near the mountain-ringed capital.

The Kam Air Boeing 737-200 took off on Thursday afternoon from the western Afghan city of Herat bound for Kabul, but was unable to land because of bad weather. The airline initially said the plane was diverted to neighbouring 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 5km east of Kabul," Afghan Transport Minister Enayatullah Qasemi said at a news conference. "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. Three were believed to be American health workers, and one a Bangladeshi. The eight-strong crew included six Russians and two Afghans, Kamgar said.

Kabul is surrounded by high mountains, raising the hazards for planes flying in bad weather. Still, the snow clouds had cleared by noon on Friday, improving the prospects of finding and reaching any crash site.

Very remote

The area near the border is so remote that officials suspect militants including Osama bin Laden have hidden there since the fall of Afghanistan's former Taliban government in 2001.

The private airline's mainly domestic flights are popular with Afghans wealthy enough to avoid long journeys over bumpy roads. Aid and reconstruction workers also use them, and three of the passengers were Americans working for Management Sciences for Health, a firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

William Schiffbauer, a representative of the company in Kabul, said the three employees were women but declined to give further details.

A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Kabul said officials were trying to establish just how many Americans were on the plane.

A Bangladeshi national working for Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation, an Australian consulting firm, was also on the board, said Shaheen Bokhari, an official for the company in Pakistan.

Qasemi said the pilot last contacted the Kabul control tower at about 15:00 on Thursday to ask for a weather update and was cleared for landing by Bagram Air Base moments before it disappeared from radar screens.

He said officials had checked with local air fields and those in neighbouring countries without finding any trace of the plane.

Nato, whose 8 000-strong peacekeeping force is based in Kabul, was leading the search using Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, dozens of ground troops and an unmanned drone.

- AP