On Sunday, Russian aviation authorities announced that a Russian-registered plane carrying six individuals had disappeared from radar screens over Afghanistan the previous night following reports of a crash by local Afghan police.
The aircraft in question was identified as a charter ambulance flight, making its journey from Thailand’s Utapao Airport in Pattaya to Moscow, with layovers in India and Uzbekistan. The plane, a 1978 French-made Dassault Aviation Falcon 10 jet, was reportedly equipped for medical evacuation.
The disappearance occurred approximately 25 minutes after the pilot alerted that the fuel was running low, indicating an intention to land at an airport in Tajikistan, as reported by the Russian news outlet SHOT, citing an unnamed source.
Russian-Registered Charter Flight with Six People Crashes in Afghanistan (Credits: NBC News)
SHOT further stated that the pilot later communicated the failure of one engine, followed by the failure of the second engine. However, Reuters was unable to verify these details immediately.
India’s civil aviation authority clarified that the flight was neither a scheduled commercial flight nor an Indian chartered aircraft and awaited more information.
The flight was engaged in a private medical evacuation mission, transporting a bedridden patient, a Russian citizen, accompanied by her husband, from Pattaya to Moscow.
The passengers were identified as a couple from Volgodonsk in southern Russia, according to various Russian media outlets. A manifest list published by SHOT indicated that the entire crew were Russian nationals.
Russia’s Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case to determine whether safety regulations were breached in connection with the incident. The plane was reportedly owned by Athletic Group LLC, a small Russian firm that had not responded to inquiries at the time of the report.
The Taliban-run Afghan aviation ministry issued a statement asserting that the plane’s intended route did not include passage through Afghanistan’s airspace. The ministry suggested that the deviation from the planned route might have been due to technical issues, and a technical team was investigating the matter.
Reports of a plane crash in Badakhshan province, northern Afghanistan, had been received by the local police. A team was dispatched to the remote crash site, situated more than 124 miles from the provincial capital, Fayzabad, with an estimated 12-hour journey.
The statement from the provincial police spokesperson confirmed that the crash occurred overnight in a remote, mountainous region of Badakhshan. Aircraft manufacturer Dassault did not provide immediate comments in response to requests outside of normal business hours.
