MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. A Falcon 10 private jet crash in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province killed two out of the six people onboard, Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov told TASS.
"I have just returned from Kabul’s airport where we went to meet the four survivors of the plane crash. There were a total of six people onboard. Unfortunately, two of them died," the diplomat said.
The four survivors are said to be the crew members. Two passengers, a Russian married couple, were killed in the crash.
According to the envoy, at Russia’s request, the Afghan authorities promptly carried out a search and rescue operation in the mountainous area where the aircraft had crashed. "This morning, the Afghan search and rescue team airlifted the survivors by helicopter first to the city of Fayzabad, the capital of the Badakhshan province, from where they were sent to Kabul on a special flight," the diplomat said.
The Falcon 10 plane disappeared from radar on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan late on January 20. There were six people aboard the plane traveling from Thailand to Moscow. The Transport Ministry of the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) announced on January 21 that rescuers had found the plane and four survivors.