Azerbaijan , Baku, July 6 / Trend/
Nine crew members were on board a cargo aircraft IL-76 4K-AZ 55 of the Azerbaijani cargo airline Silk Way, which crashed at 2:10 a.m. [Baku time] on Tuesday in the Afghan province of Parwan north of Kabul, the Azerbaijani Civil Aviation Administration told Trend.
The captain of the aircraft, 42-year-old Sergey Kuzmin, is an experienced pilot with 4,576 hours of professional flight experience.
The Afghan Airspace Control Service reported that connection with the cargo plane Silk Way was lost at 00:10 (2:10 Baku time) on July 6 not far from Bagram airport, when the plane disappeared from radar. At the same time the dispatcher managing the aircraft notified that a flash occurred approximately 25 km from the Kabul airport at an altitude of 4 km.
It is assumed that the plane may have encountered an unknown object in the air, as information about an emergency situation was not reported by the flight crew until the connection was lost.
A total of 18 tons of cargo was on board the plane en route from Baku to Bagram. The plane picked up its cargo at the Baku Heydar Aliyev International Airport and took off at 21:26 (local time).
The plane with a carrying capacity of 40 tons was built in 2005 and passed a full inspection in February 2011. It passed the next inspection in June 2011.
A special commission will investigate the incident and experts will be sent to investigate the crash site in agreement with Afghan aviation.
A representative of the Afghan National Airlines Areana said that the exact site of the crash is not yet known. Local police and army units are still carrying out the search, RIA Novosti reported.
The Associated Press reported that a large fire occurred at the crash site. British Maj. Tim James, a spokesman for the U.S. led coalition, said the plane, which crashed about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) up the mountain, was not a coalition aircraft. He said no insurgent activity was in the area at the time of the crash.
Azerbaijani ambassador to Pakistan, which is also accredited in Afghanistan, Dashgin Shikarov confirmed a presence of 9 people on board. He told Trend that he has no information about their fate yet.