Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
May 19, 2016
An Azerbaijani cargo plane has crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing seven of its nine crew.
A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan said the plane crashed on takeoff from Camp Dwyer, a military airport in Helmand Province, on May 18.
There was “no military involvement” in the crash, he said, adding that one of the plane’s wings clipped the runway as it was taking off.
Azerbaijan’s civil aviation authority said the dead included five Azerbaijanis, one Ukrainian, and one Uzbek.
It said the condition of the two Ukrainian survivors is “stable and satisfactory.”
The Antonov An-12 that belonged to Silk Way Airlines of Azerbaijan was flying without cargo to Mary in Turkmenistan to refuel.
In 2011, a cargo plane operated by Silk Way crashed into mountains in Afghanistan as it tried to land at the Bagram Airfield north of Kabul, killing all nine crew.
Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters