lucky wilbury
11-30-2004, 02:25 AM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6615036/
Plane missing over Afghanistan
U.S. says 3 crew, 3 military passengers on board
BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:02 a.m. ET Nov. 30, 2004
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military said Tuesday that it was searching for six Americans who were aboard an aircraft that went missing over Afghanistan.
It said troops and planes were scouring an area of the Hindu Kush mountains, from where it had received a signal from an emergency locator transmitter.
It was unclear if the missing aircraft crashed, and a spokesman for the military said officials had not given up hope of finding the three soldiers and three crew members alive.
“Until we can get a search team into the area, we are hoping for the best,” Maj. Mark McCann said.
The civilian CASA 112 plane was operated by Florida-based Presidential Airways and was contracted to the U.S. Air Force to ferry troops and equipment around Afghanistan, McCann said.
He said all six of those on board were American citizens, but declined to identify them further.
The plane took off from the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of the capital, on Saturday, but never arrived at its undisclosed destination or any other airfield.
McCann said rescuers believed they had located an area where the plane may have come down, but had been hampered by bad weather on Sunday that coated Afghanistan’s daunting mountains with snow.
Ghulam Mohammed, a senior police official in central Bamiyan province, said military helicopters were searching the nearby Baba Range, which rises to 16,600 feet but had no information on the exact location of the plane or the fate of its passengers.
McCann declined to give details, saying it could endanger troops on the ground.
Accidents have accounted for most of the more than 100 deaths of U.S. service members since Operation Enduring Freedom began in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
An American airman was fatally wounded on Oct. 20 when his helicopter, carrying a wounded Afghan election worker, crashed in Herat province due to technical problems.
The last combat deaths were those of two U.S. soldiers killed by a roadside bomb last Wednesday in Uruzgan province.
Plane missing over Afghanistan
U.S. says 3 crew, 3 military passengers on board
BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:02 a.m. ET Nov. 30, 2004
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military said Tuesday that it was searching for six Americans who were aboard an aircraft that went missing over Afghanistan.
It said troops and planes were scouring an area of the Hindu Kush mountains, from where it had received a signal from an emergency locator transmitter.
It was unclear if the missing aircraft crashed, and a spokesman for the military said officials had not given up hope of finding the three soldiers and three crew members alive.
“Until we can get a search team into the area, we are hoping for the best,” Maj. Mark McCann said.
The civilian CASA 112 plane was operated by Florida-based Presidential Airways and was contracted to the U.S. Air Force to ferry troops and equipment around Afghanistan, McCann said.
He said all six of those on board were American citizens, but declined to identify them further.
The plane took off from the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of the capital, on Saturday, but never arrived at its undisclosed destination or any other airfield.
McCann said rescuers believed they had located an area where the plane may have come down, but had been hampered by bad weather on Sunday that coated Afghanistan’s daunting mountains with snow.
Ghulam Mohammed, a senior police official in central Bamiyan province, said military helicopters were searching the nearby Baba Range, which rises to 16,600 feet but had no information on the exact location of the plane or the fate of its passengers.
McCann declined to give details, saying it could endanger troops on the ground.
Accidents have accounted for most of the more than 100 deaths of U.S. service members since Operation Enduring Freedom began in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
An American airman was fatally wounded on Oct. 20 when his helicopter, carrying a wounded Afghan election worker, crashed in Herat province due to technical problems.
The last combat deaths were those of two U.S. soldiers killed by a roadside bomb last Wednesday in Uruzgan province.