Azerbaijan, Baku, July 12 / Trend S.agayeva /
Azerbaijan has officially sent the second note to the Afghan Foreign Ministry for assistance in the delivery of the dead bodies of the crew members of the Azerbaijani plane crashed in the country.
"Azerbaijan has again sent a note to the Afghan Foreign Ministry with a request for delivery of the dead bodies in Kabul for onward transfer to the Azerbaijani commission established to define causes for the plane crash," Azerbaijani ambassador to Pakistan and Afghanistan Dashgin Shikarov told Trend .
Earlier, Azerbaijan addressed a similar note to the Afghan authorities on Sunday.
The commission members, who are in Kabul, still could not get the crash site due to the difficult situation there.
"Azerbaijan makes every effort to get the dead bodies of the crew members from the crash site. But unfortunately, these efforts have been unsuccessful so far. The Taliban forces shelled the area in attempts to get to the crash," he said.
"Despite that the coalition forces have allocated about 300 soldiers to accompany the members of the Azerbaijani commission, which includes representatives of the Civil Aviation Administration of Azerbaijan and specialists of Silk Way Company, which owned the plane, the commission still has not got to the crash site because of anti-terrorist operations carried out there, "he said.
Five members of the nine-person crew on the "Azerbaijan Airlines"cargo aircraft were Azerbaijani citizens. The other victims were Uzbek citizens, the ambassador said. All crew members of the "Azerbaijan Airlines" cargo aircraft were killed.
Nine crew members and a total of 18 tons of cargo were 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 subsequent inspection in June 2011.
The Azerbaijani commission to investigate the causes of the Azerbaijani plane crash in Afghanistan has stated that one of the priority versions of the plane crash is that 'Taliban shot down it'.
"The version that Taliban shot down the Azerbaijani cargo plane in Afghanistan is one of the priorities," Deputy Director General of Azerbaijan Airlines Ilham Amirov said at a news conference.