Azerbaijan , Baku, July 6/ corr. Trend V. Zhavoronkova/
United States Embassy in Kabul and its Defense Attache Office to assist in the investigation of the incident of Azerbaijan plane crash in Afghanistan, told Trend the Information Officer of U.S. Embassy in Baku Keith Bean.
According to him, U.S. Embassy in Baku is aware of the crash and the Defense Attache Office is working in close coordination with the contractor.
"U.S. Embassy Kabul and its Defense Attache Office to assist in the investigation of the incident and in the recovery operation", Bean said.
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 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.