Pamir Accident Afghanistan

[Opsbeatch]

Doesn't look good chaps!

BBC Website;


An Afghan passenger plane carrying some 40 people has gone missing between Kunduz and Kabul, officials say. "We are very worried that a Pamir plane might have gone down," Kunduz province governor Mohammad Omar told Reuters.
The plane had been missing since early morning, he said, adding that some foreigners are thought to be on board.
Unconfirmed reports say the plane may have crashed near the Salang pass, a mountainous area about 60 miles (100 km) north of the capital, Kabul.

[John R81]

Link to BBC site

BBC News - Afghan passenger plane 'crashes near Salang Pass' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8686584.stm)

[Whenwe]

A passenger plane carrying 42 people on an internal flight between Kunduz and Kabul has crashed in a mountainous area of northern Afghanistan.

The Pamir Airways flight, which had 38 passengers and five crew members on board, crashed in remote mountains between the two cities, officials said.

The Russian made AN-24 aircraft took off from Kunduz airport on Monday morning, but never arrived in Kabul. Afghan authorities said that it had crashed.

"I can confirm that an aircraft carrying 38 passengers plus five crew has crashed somewhere in Salang Pass," Zemarai Bashary the Interior Ministry spokesman said, after receiving a report from Pamir.

"The Pamir Airways report said there were a number of foreigners on board."

He said that the Nato force in Afghanistan has been asked to assist in the search for the plane and that drones were searching for the crash site. A Nato spokesman confirmed that aircraft had been sent to the area.

Bad weather is already preventing rescue efforts, Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Kabul, said after speaking to police in the area the plane is thought to have crashed.

"We do not know the cause of the crash. It could be bad weather," she said. "The conditions are bad. It's so foggy there is no rescue going on."

She said that the airline bought the plane three months ago from Bulgaria.

Pamir Airways is one of three major private airlines that operate mostly domestic routes across Afghanistan.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

[checkerboard6]

RIP Chaps, those contractors that continue to pax around the Stan on these dodge Afghan outfits, good luck to you. Been IMC in Kabul most of the day today and the weather was poor up North today.

Doubt they will find the wreckage today

[GhettoCheeze]

KABUL Afghanistan – An Afghan passenger plane carrying 44 people, including six foreigners, crashed Monday in a mountainous northern region where poor weather was hampering efforts to locate it, officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Rescuers were on their way to the crash site near the 12,700-foot (3,800-meter) -high Salang Pass, a major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north. The plane, on a flight from the northern city of Kunduz, went down about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Kabul, said Kabul International Airport Police Chief Mohammad Asif Jabar Khil.
Zemeri Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the plane was operated by Pamir Airways, a private Afghan airline. He said the Afghan government asked NATO for assistance.
NATO said a manned fixed-wing aircraft had been dispatched to the last known position of the missing plane but poor weather was hampering the aerial search.
Two NATO helicopters have been dispatched to the area and other helicopters with the international coalition are on standby at Bagram Air Field and the Kabul airport to assist in any rescue effort, NATO said in a statement.
"The weather is very bad," said Gen. Rajab, commander of the Salang Pass for the Afghan Ministry of Public Works, who goes by only one name. "It is snowing. There is flooding."
Raz Mohammad Alami, deputy transportation minister who was attempting to travel to the crash site with the minister of aviation and other officials, said the plane was carrying 44 people, including six foreigners and six crew members.
Police chief Abdul Razaq Yabyaqoubi of northern Kunduz province said the plane left there at 8:30 a.m. Monday, but never arrived in the capital.
Mohammad Azim, chief of police in the Jabalussaraj district of Parwan province, said the crash occurred between his district and Shotul, a district in Panjshir province.
Kabul-based Pamir Airways started operations in 1995. It has daily flights to major Afghan cities and also operates flights to Dubai and to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage.
According to its website, the airline uses Antonov 24 type aircraft on all its Kunduz-to-Kabul flights. The two-engine turboprop can carry a maximum of 52 passengers, according to Aviation Safety Network. The network said production of the aircraft ended in 1979.


Source: Associated Press

[asianflyer2]

I hope that there are no links between this tragedy and rumours that donors were not even prepared to put the tips of their fingers into their pockets to keep an ICAO project afloat. ICAO were at least proving international support to flight and airport safety and were ensuring that minimum standards were being kept in a difficult aviation environment.

[islandjumper]

I briefly flew the 24 awhile back. A real pilot's plane. But they're getting a bit long in the tooth by now. Production ended sometime in the 70s, so the youngest examples must be well over 30 years old.

[lander66]

Can't believe it, less than a week after the Afriqiyah Airways crash.:(

[islandjumper]

Media now reporting the plane's tail has been spotted high in the mountains, at an altitude of over 14,000 feet.

[PaperTiger]

Wreckage located. All occupants fatal.

Crash: Pamir AN24 near Kabul on May 17th 2010, impacted terrain on approach (http://avherald.com/h?article=42b9d241&opt=0)

[descol]

Have the names of the British passengers been released and if so, any info where I would see them ?
thanks

[rcsa]

BBC News - 'No sign of life' at Afghanistan plane crash site (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia_pacific/10135900.stm)

No survivors apparently.

Brits named as Chris Carter, Daniel Saville and David Taylor,

Three Britons feared dead after Afghan flight disappears over Hindu Kush - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7734140/Three-Britons-feared-dead-after-Afghan-flight-disappears-over-Hindu-Kush.html)

[PH-JPC]

Horrible accident... flew that same route often and it surprises me they reached the wreck this fast.
RIP to all involved.