Wreckage of jet found in mountains

A Nato helicopter searching for an Afghan jet that disappeared during a snowstorm with 104 people aboard, found what appears to be the wreckage of the plane today in the forbidding mountains east of the capital, officials said.

“The wreckage of the plane was found near Band-e Ghazi,” said Gen. Mahbub Amiri, a senior Afghan commander.

“It is in high mountains, full of snow. My forces are at the foot of the mountain and we’re trying to get a helicopter in there.”

There was no word on whether anyone survived the crash.

An official at the Nato headquarters in Kabul said the crash site was spotted by a Dutch Apache helicopter gunship. He had no further details.

The Kam Air Boeing 737-200 vanished from radar screens on Thursday afternoon as it approached Kabul airport, sparking a massive search operation for the 96 passengers and eight crew, about 19 of them foreigners.

If all are confirmed dead, the incident will be Afghanistan’s worst aviation disaster.

There was no indication that the Kam Air Boeing 737-200, which was arriving from the western Afghan city of Herat, was hijacked or brought down by a bomb, Defence Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi said.

Hundreds of Afghan and Nato forces began the search early Friday, but were hampered in their efforts by thick snow and freezing fog enveloping the tall mountains which ring the Afghan capital. Helicopters were held on the grounds for hours early today by poor visibility.

Kam Air was the first private airline in post-Taliban Afghanistan and made its maiden flight on the Kabul-Herat route in November 2003. Its mainly domestic flights using leased Boeing and Antonov planes are popular with wealthy Afghans and also are used by aid and reconstruction workers.

However, there have been concerns about the safety of its planes as well as those of state-owned Ariana Airlines.

The most recent commercial crash was on March 19, 1998, when an Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 slammed into a peak near Kabul, killing all 45 passengers and crew.