A Russian private jet carrying six people is believed to have crashed in a remote area of rural Afghanistan, authorities said Sunday.
The crash happened Saturday in a mountainous area near Zebak district in Badakhshan province, regional spokesman Zabihullah Amiri said, adding that a rescue team had been dispatched to the area.
Badakhshan police chief's office also confirmed the report of the crash in a statement.
From Moscow, Russian civil aviation authorities said a Dassault Falcon 10 went missing with four crew members and two passengers. The plane had been operating as a charter ambulance flight on a route from Gaya, India, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, onward to Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow.
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The plane “stopped communicating and disappeared from radar screens,” authorities said.
Russian officials said the plane belongs to Athletic Group LLC and a private individual. The Associated Press could not immediately reach its owners.
A separate Taliban statement described the plane as “belonging to a Moroccan company.” The discrepancy could not be immediately reconciled.
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International carriers have largely avoided Afghanistan since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of the country. Those that briefly fly over rush through Afghan airspace for only a few minutes while over the sparsely populated Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan province, a narrow panhandle that juts out of the east of the country between Tajikistan and Pakistan, before continuing their way.
