Afghan minister feared dead in plane crash

Afghan Industries Minister Juma Mohammed Mohammedi was on board a small plane that crashed today after taking off from an airport in Karachi, Pakistan.

There was no immediate word on whether anyone had survived the incident, which happened as the Cessna was flying to Jazak, near the Iranian border.

Also on board was the chief executive of a Chinese mining company, three other Afghan officials, a Pakistani foreign ministry official and two crew.

The crash site was about 28 miles west of Karachi. The Cessna 402 was owned by Pakistan’s largest private welfare organisation, the Edhi Trust, and had left Karachi International Airport at about 8am local time (3am Irish time).

It lost contact with the control tower soon afterwards, a spokesman said.