Rescue team finds survivors of jet crash in Afghanistan

A rescue team has reached a private jet that crashed in northern Afghanistan and is treating survivors at the site, according to Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport.

According to preliminary information, four of the six people aboard the Dassault Falcon 10 aircraft are injured but alive, the Russian authority said, citing the Russian embassy in Afghanistan. The fate of the other two is not yet known, the statement said.

The accident occurred in Badakhshan province at about 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, the Afghan aviation ministry said in a statement. The Moroccan-registered plane was an air ambulance that was flying from Thailand to Moscow and refueled at Gaya airport, according to India’s civil aviation ministry.

“The plane crashed in the high mountains of Badakhshan province,” Zabihullah Amiri, the provincial head of information and cultural department, said by phone. 

The aircraft is co-owned by an unidentified individual and Atletik Grup LLC registered in the Moscow region, the Russian authority said, adding the flight departed from Gaya, India, and was headed for the Zhukovsky airport near Moscow.