Passenger Plane Crashes In Afghanistan, Kills Everyone On Board

A passenger plane has crashed in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, killing everyone on board, according to senior Afghan officials.

Arif Noori, a spokesperson for the province’s governor, said damage was so extensive it was difficult to identify bodies in the wreckage

The aircraft came down in the Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, to the south-west of Kabul, a provincial spokesman told local media. The plane crashed and caught fire due to technical reasons, the spokesman said.

The plane was initially reported to have belonged to Ariana Airlines but the company has now denied this.

“There has been an airline crash but it does not belong to Ariana because the two flights managed by Ariana today from Herat to Kabul and Herat to Delhi are safe,” the airline’s acting CEO Mirwais Mirzakwal Mirzakwal told Reuters news agency.

Earlier, three senior Afghan government officials said one of the state-owned airline’s planes had crashed in the Sado Khel area of Deh Yak district of Ghazni province around 1:10 pm (08.40 GMT) local time on Monday.

Official sources in the province said the plane was en route to Ghazni from Herat when it crashed.

The plane crashed in a territory under Taliban control, Tolo news reported, adding that Afghan special forces will be sent to the crash site.

However, Ariana Airlines released a statement on its website saying all its aircraft were operational and safe.