Plane crashes in central Afghanistan, exact details unclear

FAN Editor

A plane has crashed in Afghanistan’s central Ghazni province, killing everyone on board, a senior Afghan official told NBC News.

The plane crashed Monday in territory under Taliban control but the exact details remain unclear. Social media images, purportedly from the site, show the possible remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft. 

The U.S. military is investigating reports of the crash, according to The Associated Press, with U.S. Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command, saying it remained unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash.

Arif Noori, a spokesman for the governor’s office in Ghazni, said fire brigades, security officials and rescue teams were at the scene of the crash.

It was initially reported to be a plane from the state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines. However, the airline’s acting CEO Mirwais Mirzakwal has since denied that one of its planes had crashed.

“There has been an airline crash but it does not belong to Ariana because the two flights managed by Ariana today from Herat to Kabul and Herat to Delhi are safe,” Mirzakwal told Reuters.

A Facebook account belonging to the airline also said that if any crash did happen, it didn’t involve one of its planes.

The spokesman for the provincial governor said the plane went down around 1:10 p.m. local time in the Deh Yak district. Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash, according to AP.

A map showing Ghazni Province in Afghanistan.

Google Earth

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the group was checking on news of a plane crash, Reuters also reported.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) currently has a notification which cites Afghanistan airspace warnings from a number of countries. The U.K. Aeronautical Information Service suggests a potential risk to aircraft flying below 25,000 feet due to “anti aviation weaponry.”

United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) advises “extreme caution” when flying into Afghan airspace, adding that ground time in the country should be minimized.

Spokespersons for Ariana Afghan Airlines and the U.S. Army were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

—Reuters, The Associated Press, and CNBC’s Amanda Macias contributed to this article.

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