Plane Carrying 83 Feared To Have Crashed In Afghanistan

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Citing initial information, provincial Governor Wahidullah Kalimzai told RFE/RL that the aircraft belonged to Afghanistan’s national carrier Ariana Airlines and was carrying about 83 people.

In a Facebook post, the state-owned Ariana Airlines denied that one of its planes had crashed.

“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,” Ariana’s acting CEO, Mirwais Mirzakwal, told Reuters.

Kalimzai said the airliner came down in the Deh Yak district, a Taliban-held area southwest of Kabul.

His spokesman, Aref Nouri, earlier said that the crash took place at around 1:10 p.m. local time. The cause is not known.

“Our personnel are trying to reach the area. But the area is remote, and our security forces do not have access to it,” Nouri said.

Ghazni Province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains.

With reporting by Reuters