Preliminary information from rescuers at the scene of a Dassault Falcon 10 crash in Afghanistan indicates that at least four of the six occupants survived the accident.
Russian federal air transport regulator Rosaviatsia, citing the Russian embassy in Afghanistan, states that local search and rescue personnel have located the aircraft, after contact was lost in Afghan airspace, near the border with Tajikistan.
Four crew members and two passengers were on board the jet, and Rosaviatsia says four of the occupants were found alive. The situation with the other two people on board is “being clarified”, it adds.
Afghanistan’s ministry of transport states that the aircraft came down in the northeastern mountainous Badakhshan region, in the Kuf Ab district, adding that a pilot is among the survivors.
The aircraft carries a Russian registration, RA-09011, and belongs to sports company Atletik Grupp and a private individual, states Rosaviatsia.
It says the aircraft lost radar and radio contact on 20 January while operating an “ambulance flight” from Gaya, India, to Moscow Zhukovsky via the Uzbekistan capital Tashkent.
The jet originally departed U-Tapao airport, near Pattaya City in Thailand.
The jet was originally delivered under a US registration in 1979 and has passed through several operators.
Precise circumstances of the aircraft’s disappearance have not been clarified. Rosaviatsia says it is in contact with aviation authorities in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
