Russian plane crashes in Northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province: police

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By Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Russian private jet carrying six people crashed in a remote area of rural Afghanistan but the pilot and some of the others on board survived, the Taliban said Sunday.

The crash happened Saturday in a mountainous area in Badakhshan province, regional spokesman Zabihullah Amiri said, adding that a rescue team was dispatched to the area. The province is some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. It is a rural, mountainous area, home to only several thousand people.

“The pilot was found by the search team of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” the statement said. “According to the pilot, four people including the pilot are alive. … The search and assistance of the Islamic Emirate investigation team for the remaining survivors is ongoing.”

There was no independent confirmation of the Taliban’s statement. The Taliban also published a video of snow-capped mountains in the area.

In Moscow, Russian civil aviation authorities said a Dassault Falcon 10 went missing with four crew members and two passengers. The Russian-registered aircraft “stopped communicating and disappeared from radar screens,” authorities said. It described the flight as starting from Thailand’s U-Tapao–Rayong–Pattaya International Airport.

The plane had been operating as a charter ambulance flight on a route from Gaya, India, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and onward to Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow.

Russian officials said the plane was built in 1978 and belongs to Athletic Group LLC and a private individual. The Associated Press could not immediately reach its owners.