Russian Plane with 6 People Crashes in Afghan Mountains; Govt Says It Was Not an Indian Carrier

The Russian government on Sunday said a Russian-registered plane with six people thought to be on board disappeared from radar screens over Afghanistan the previous night, after local Afghan authorities said they had received reports of a crash.

Russian aviation authorities said the plane was a charter ambulance flight traveling from India, via Uzbekistan to Moscow on a French-made Dassault Falcon 10 jet manufactured in 1978, news agency Reuters reported.

The plane that crashed in the Afghan mountains does not belong to an Indian carrier, New Delhi’s civil aviation ministry said on Sunday after media reports linked the flight to India. The plane is not a charter aircraft, the clarification added. “It is a Moroccan-registered small aircraft. More details are awaited,” the civil aviation ministry wrote on social media platform X.

Earlier, TOLO News wrongly reported that an Indian passenger plane crashed in the mountains of Topkhana in Badakhshan province. The report said that a team had been sent to the area to investigate the incident.

The Afghan provincial police spokesperson said in a statement the crash had taken place overnight in a remote, mountainous region of Badakhshan in Afghanistan’s far north.

He said there were no confirmed details on the type of plane, cause of the crash or casualties. The Hindu Kush mountain range cuts through the province, which is home to Afghanistan’s highest mountain, Mount Noshaq at 7,492 metres high.

(With agency inputs)