SALANG PASS, Afghanistan: Relatives of passengers aboard an Afghan plane that crashed with 44 on board joined a desperate search for the wreckage Tuesday as government and NATO rescue helicopters whirred overhead.
The plane, operated by Pamir Airways, a private Afghan airline, was traveling from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan to Kabul when it crashed Monday. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane when it was about 55 miles (85 km) north of Kabul, prompting rescue workers to rush to the Salang Pass, a major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north.
Aerial searches by the Afghan government and the international coalition, hampered by dense fog and darkness Monday night, resumed at dawn.
"Right now, we are looking to identify the location of the crash," President Hamid Karzai said at a news conference. "In some areas, the bad weather — snow, rain and fog — will not let us do the search. We’re very hopeful that we will able to find the victims of the crash soon and hand the bodies over to their families."
Small bands of civilians fanned out on foot up the rocky mountain trails in a desperate search for clues as pilots flew in and out of billowy clouds in hopes of spotting signs of the wreckage.
"I have come here to look for the dead body of our relative or see if he is wounded — or any sign of him," said Jamal, whose brother-in-law was aboard the plane. "We have got six or seven relatives looking for him. So far we have nothing."
Jamal, who uses only one name, and a half dozen members of his family joined his informal search party.
"So far we have nothing," Jamal said, sitting on a rock, his head cupped in his hands. "This is the emergency time. They (the Afghan government) should help us."
There was no official word of the passengers’ fate. But fearing their relatives had perished in the crash, grown men in tears collapsed into the arms of loved ones. Others at the search party site sat on granite boulders, their faces buried in traditional Afghan scarves.
Afghan aviation, transportation and other government officials who traveled to the Salang Pass said rugged terrain made the search for the plane difficult and nearly impossible to do on foot.
Kochai, who goes by only one name, said he and three of his relatives arose at 3 a.m. in Kabul and drove to the mountains to search for his cousin, a passenger who was returning to the capital after working at a construction site at Kunduz airport.
Kochai and other relatives lamented the sparse information available about the missing plane.
"The government has not given us any information about the plane — whether it was hijacked or whether it crashed," he said. "We have no clue about what’s happening."
Myar Rasooli, the head of Kabul airport, said air traffic controllers’ last contact with the plane was when it was about 55 miles (85 km) north of Kabul. He said there was no distress call from the pilot.
Ghulam Maroof, an aviation investigator working for the Afghan government, was aboard one of two Afghan military helicopters that flew over the area at dawn. "There was nothing," he said. "We checked the entire route."
As it did on Monday, NATO dispatched a number of aircraft to look for the downed plane, said Mst. Sgt. Jeff Loftin, a spokesman for the international coalition.
Six crew members and six foreigners were among the 44 aboard, according to Deputy Transportation Minister Raz Mohammad Alami, who traveled to region of the crash with top government officials.
The British Embassy in Kabul said three were British citizens. One American also was aboard, according to a State Department official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity pending notification of family. The nationalities of the two other foreigners were not immediately available.
Kabul-based Pamir Airways started operations in 1995. It has daily flights to major Afghan cities and also operates flights to Dubai and Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage.
According to its website, Pamir uses Antonov An-24 type aircraft on all its Kunduz-to-Kabul flights.
Pamir’s chief executive officer, Amanullah Hamid, said the plane was last inspected about three months ago in Bulgaria.
The An-24 is a medium-range twin-turboprop civil aircraft built in the former Soviet Union from 1950 to 1978. Although production there ceased more than three decades ago, a modernized version is still made in China.
It is widely used by airlines in the developing world due to its rugged design, ease of maintenance and low operating costs.
A total of 143 have so far been lost in accidents, according to the Aviation Safety Network’s statistics. –Amir Shah in Kabul, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
