Afghan officials say search craft have located the tail of missing passenger plane

Afghan officials: tail of missing plane spotted

KABUL, Afghanistan — Search craft on Thursday spotted the tail of a commercial airliner that disappeared Monday while flying over the Hindu Kush mountains with 44 people on board, Afghan officials said.

Air traffic controllers lost track of the Antonov-24, operated by Pamir Airways, when it was about 55 miles (85 kilometers) north of Kabul. Three British citizens and an American were among those on board.

Poor weather and the rugged mountain terrain hampered search efforts in recent days but aircraft finally located the tail section Thursday in mountains about 24 miles (38 kilometers) north of Kabul, acting Aviation Minister Mohammadullah Batash said. They were able to identify the blue Pamir Airways logo on the tail, he said.

An aviation investigator with the Afghan government, Ghulam Maroof, confirmed the finding, saying he had seen photos of the tail. He said the area where the tail was found is about 14,000 feet (4,270 meters) above sea level and very difficult to reach. Helicopters were being dispatched to find a landing spot, Maroof said.

A NATO spokesman, Master Sgt. Jeff Loftin, said the alliance could not confirm if the Pamir plane had been found.

Kabul-based Pamir Airways, whose name honors the Pamir mountain range of Central Asia, started operations in 1995. It has daily flights to major Afghan cities and flies to Dubai and Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage.

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.

Also, the Pentagon reported that one full colonel and two lieutenant colonels were among the five U.S. soldiers killed Tuesday by a suicide car bomber in Kabul. A Canadian colonel also died in the blast. Casualties among the ranks of senior officers are uncommon.

A statement on the Pentagon website identified the dead Americans as Col. John M. McHugh, 46, of New Jersey, assigned to the U.S. Army Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Lt. Col. Paul R. Bartz, 43, of Waterloo, Wisconsin, assigned to the 10th Mountain Division; Lt. Col. Thomas P. Belkofer, 44, of Perrysburg, Ohio, assigned to the 10th Mountain Division; Staff Sgt. Richard J. Tieman, 28, of Waynesboro, Pennsylania and Spc. Joshua A. Tomlinson, 24, of Dubberly, Louisina, both assigned to Special Troops Battalion, V Corps based in Heidelberg, Germany.