Afghan air crash leaves 44 people missing

Up 44 people are missing after a passenger plane crashed in a remote area of Afghanistan today.

Rescuers were trying to reach the crash site near the 12,700ft Salang Pass, a major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north.

The plane was operated by Pamir Airways, a private Afghan airline making a flight from the northern city of Kunduz to Kabul.

Nato sent a search plane to the last known position of the crash plane, but poor weather hampered its efforts.

A spokesman said the US aircraft got within four miles of the crash site, but had to abort due to bad weather.

“All eyes were searching for the plane but the fog was so bad you couldn’t tell where the mountain began and the fog ended,” he said.

Other helicopters were on standby at Bagram Air Field and the Kabul airport to assist in any rescue effort “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.”

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 An-24 type aircraft on all its Kunduz-to-Kabul flights.

The Antonov An-24 is a 60-year-old, medium range twin-turboprop civil aircraft built in the former Soviet Union from 1950 to 1978. Although production there ceased more than three decades ago, a modernised version is still being made in China.

The aircraft is widely used by airlines in the developing world due to its rugged design, ease of maintenance and low operating costs. It is designed to operate from remote, unprepared airstrips with austere navigational aids.

A total 143 have so far been lost in all sorts of mishaps, according to the Aviation Safety Network’s statistics.