Plane crashed in Afghanistan not Indian, did refuelling at Gaya: Govt

New Delhi: A small aircraft that crashed in Afghanistan did not belong to any Indian carrier and the plane did refuelling at the Gaya airport while it was flying to Moscow from an airport in Thailand, the government said on Sunday.

Amid reports that it was an Indian plane that was involved in the crash, the civil aviation ministry said the aircraft was registered in Morocco.

"As per available information, the crashed aircraft is a DF-10 (Dassault Falcon) small aircraft registered in Morocco. It is not an aircraft of Indian carriers.

"The aircraft was an air ambulance and was flying from Thailand to Moscow and did refuelling at Gaya airport," the ministry said in a statement.

A source in the know said the plane had started from Utapao airport in Thailand.

In a post on X, the ministry said the "unfortunate plane crash that has just occurred in Afghanistan is neither an Indian Scheduled Aircraft nor a Non-Scheduled (NSOP)/Charter aircraft. It is a Moroccan-registered small aircraft. More details are awaited".

The unfortunate plane crash that has just occurred in Afghanistan is neither an Indian Scheduled Aircraft nor a Non Scheduled (NSOP)/Charter aircraft. It is a Moroccan registered small aircraft. More details are awaited.

— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) January 21, 2024

Quoting authorities, news agency AP said a Russian private jet carrying six people is believed to have crashed in a remote area of rural Afghanistan.

The plane had been operating as a charter ambulance flight on a route from Gaya, India, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, onward to Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow, as per the report.

The aircraft crashed on Saturday in a mountainous area near Zebak district in Badakhshan province, regional spokesman Zabihullah Amiri said, adding that a rescue team had been dispatched to the area, it added.

As per the report, Badakhshan police chief's office also confirmed the report of the crash in a statement.

Quoting Russian officials, the report said the plane belongs to Athletic Group LLC and a private individual.

Further, the report quoting Russian civil aviation authorities said the plane "stopped communicating and disappeared from radar screens".

Earlier, Afghanistan's television network Tolo News, in a post on X, claimed that an Indian passenger plane crashed in the mountains of Topkhana alongside the districts of Kuran-Munjan and Zibak of Badakhshan province.

Quoting the head of the Department of Information and Culture of Badakhshan, Zabihullah Amiri, Tolo News said that a team has been sent to the area to investigate the incident.