A small charter jet heading to Moscow from India via Uzbekistan disappeared from radar screens over Afghanistan on Saturday evening and a search is underway to find it, Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said on Sunday.
The plane — a French-made Dassault Falcon 10 jet — was registered in Russia and, according to preliminary data, there were six people on board, including four crew members and two passengers, it said.
The Russian statement said the plane was manufactured in 1978 and owned by Athletic Group LLC and an unnamed private individual. Rosaviatsia is in touch with its counterparts in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, it added.
India’s civil aviation authority said that the plane crash was not a scheduled commercial flight or an Indian chartered aircraft and that “more details are awaited”.
Meanwhile, police in northern Afghanistan received reports of a plane crash in Badakhshan province — bordering China Tajikistan and Pakistan — a provincial police spokesperson said.
Zabihullah Amiri, head of the provincial information department, confirmed to media that the plane had crashed but the location was not known yet. “We have sent teams but they have not arrived yet,” he said without giving further details.
“We were informed by local people in the morning,” he added.
The mighty Hindu Kush mountain range cuts through the province, which is home to Afghanistan’s highest mountain, Mount Noshaq at 7,492 metres (24,580 feet) high.
