2 dead, 4 survive after plane from Thailand crashes in Afghanistan (video)

Taliban officials confirmed that a plane, en route from Pattaya, Thailand, to Russia, crashed in Afghanistan yesterday, January 21, resulting in the loss of two lives, while four passengers managed to survive.

The chartered Dassault Aviation AM.PA Falcon 10 aircraft took off from the U-Tapao International Airport in Pattaya on January 20 with six passengers bound for Moscow, Russia.

The aircraft, owned by the Russian company Athletic Group and a private individual, was a charter air ambulance flight en route to Gaya in India, Tashkent in Uzbekistan and Zhukovsky in Russia.

Local media reported that all passengers and the pilot were Russian nationals. One of the passengers was a female bedridden patient in critical condition.

The patient was being transferred from a hospital in Pattaya for further treatment in Moscow. Her husband also accompanied her on the flight. Russian media reported that the couple was from Volgodonsk in the southern part of the country.

The plane reportedly disappeared from radar last night as it flew over Afghanistan. According to the Russian news agency SHOT, the pilot reported that the plane was low on fuel and would have to land at an airport in Tajikistan.

The pilot said that one of the plane’s engines was not working, and then the plane disappeared from radar screens. About 25 minutes later, Afghan police received a report of a plane crash in a valley in Badakhshan province in the northern part of the country.

The rescue team was sent to the site, more than 200 kilometres from the city centre. The site was in a remote valley and it was estimated that it took rescuers around 12 hours to reach the site.

According to the latest update from Taliban officials, the rescue team successfully made their way to the site and met the pilot of the plane. He told officials that he and the three passengers survived the crash. The search for the missing passengers continues.