Four Survive Russian Private Jet Crash in Afghanistan

Four out of the six persons aboard a Russian private jet that crashed in Afghanistan on Saturday, January 20, are reported to have survived the crash. The state of the two remaining victims remains unknown. The Taliban revealed this development on Sunday, January 21.

Among the survivors is the pilot, who was found “by a search team of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” according to a statement issued by the Taliban’s Transportation and Civil Aviation Ministry.

The Russian private jet had been carrying out a medical evacuation from Thailand to Russia before the plane disappeared from the radar screens and crashed in the north-east of Afghanistan. According to Russian aviation authorities, two passengers and four crew members had been aboard the aircraft.

According to the aircraft manifest which was published by the Russian state-owned SHOT news agency, all six persons onboard were Russians. SHOT further revealed that the pilot had warned in a distress call that fuel was running low, and the plane would attempt to land in an airport in Tajikistan, a country in Central Asia.

The pilot had apparently also revealed that one of the engines on the two-engine plane had stopped, followed by the second engine. The jet disappeared from radar screens 25 minutes later after the first call.

Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 analysed by the Associated Press showed that the jet’s last position was south of the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, around 1330 GMT (2:30pm Nigerian time), on Saturday.

The last time a fatal plan crash occurred in Afghanistan was in January 27, 2020, when a United States Air Force plane crashed in Ghazni province, killing two American service members aboard.

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