6 DEAD AS PRIVATE JET CRASHES IN AFGHANISTAN

A private jet carrying six people reportedly crashed in a remote area of rural Afghanistan, according to local authorities. The crash occurred in a mountainous area near Afghanistan’s Zebak district in Badakhshan Province, 250 kms northeast of Kabul, the capital city.

Several reports claimed that the crashed plane belonged to India; however, the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation denied the claim, stating that it was a Moroccan registered small plane. The area where the crash occurred is sparsely populated, with only a few thousand people residing in the region.

The Badakhshan police chief’s office has confirmed the reports of the crash in a statement. Russian civil aviation authorities have also confirmed that a Dassault Falcon 10 aircraft, with four crew members and two passengers on board, went missing after taking off from U-Tapao-Rayong-Pattaya International Airport in Thailand. According to Russian authorities, the jet stopped communicating and disappeared from radar screens. According to flight tracking data from FlighRadar24, the aircrafts last known position was just south of the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, at 13:30 GMT on January 20.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 has led to a significant reduction in international traffic to and from the country. The few carriers that do fly over Afghanistan tend to minimize their time in the country’s airspace spending only a few minutes over the sparsely populated Wakhan Corridor in Badakshan province. The narrow region, which extends between Tajikistan and Pakistan, allows airlines to quickly transit through Afghan airspace before continuing their journeys.