KamAir aircraft missing near Kabul in bad weather

[SN30952]

In formation, from Kabul, tell a KAMAIR aircraft is missing in BAD WX near Kabul.
Comet writes "KamAir, which is the first private airline in Afghanistan...'
The missing B737 was scheduled to land in Kabul Thursday afternoon, but is still unaccounted for 18 hours after its takeoff in West Afghanistan.
The B 737 is still missing after an overnight frenzied effort to locate it.
The plane was missing after being turned away from Kabul airport the previous day due to a snow storm, an airline official said.

A KamAir official told this morning that the plane landed safely in Peshawar and 36 of the passengers on board will be flown to Kabul weather permitting.

Pakistan said it had not entered Pakistani air space.
The KamAir B737 carried 96 passengers and 8 crew members.

The airline has contacted all neighboring countries as well as ISAF and US-led coalition for help.

There were 3 foreigners and 93 local passengers aboard: 1 American and 2 Turks were on the list and 8 crew member on board. In addition to 2 Afghan flight attendants, there were also 6 Russian Canadian pilots and air stewardesses.

The B737, piloted by a Canadian crew is missing and feared crashed, was scheduled to land in Kabul Thursday afternoon after taking off from Herat, near Iran. Due to bad weather, the plane lost contact with air controllers since.

Conflicting news about the fate of the airliner abounded.
Some said it had landed safely in neighboring Peshawar airport, or in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad. Others guessed it had crashed.

Afghanistan Map

[HorsePower]

???
Almost every medias (except one!) say the wreckage of the B737 has been found.

Also:
https://www.aviation24.be/article5703.html

Pictures of the 2 aircrafts:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=7 ... r=3&size=M

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=5 ... r=6&size=M

Seb.

[SN30952]

The plane was found 35km (22 miles) East of Kabul. Some source indicate 51km.
It turned away from Kabul's airport because of a severe snow storm.
Voice of America showed a picture that illustrates that well
It is not known yet if there are survivors.

Look @ the itinerary of that flight: On days 4 & 5.
Thursday RQ 903 Kabul/Herat 06:00 09:00 B 737
Thursday RQ 915 Kabul/Mazar 06:00 10:40 B 737 Herat
Thursday RQ 916 Mazar/Kabul 11:30 14:30 B 737 Herat
Thursday RQ 904 Herat/Kabul 13:30 14:30 B 737
903 = 915 and 904 = 916 in a routing KBL-HEA-MZR-HEA -KBL // OAKB-OAHR-OAMS-OAHR-OAKB
The WX are so bad, that flights out of Kabul have been suspended.

KamAir
Afghan AOC No. 001 dated August 31, 2003 for domestic and International operation.
Kam Air's first flight was operated on November 08, 2003 between Kabul-Herat-Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul by Kam Air's Boeing 727 aircraft.
Actual fleet
Boeing 767-200ER, Boeing 737-200 Advanced series and Antonov 24RV Prop short range aircraft.

Presently Kam Air is operating from Kabul to Dubai, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kunduz, Faizabad, Sherberghan, Jalalabad, and very soon they say to Dusseldorf, Istanbul, Delhi, Almaty and Tashkent.

Note: Istanbul is not a surprise, I remember having seen the Ariana DC10 many times @ Ataturk Airport.
Anybody an idea what KAM means in KamAir?

[SN30952]

The total distance KBL-HEA-MZR-HEA-KBL = over 2347 km.
I suppose there is not much ground equipment in Afganistan.
And in these WX the crew did not shut the engines down at each stop, causing important fuel consumption.
It is now suggested that the B737 ran out of fuel and had to make an emergency landing.
It's only a calculated suggestion, considering that the Russian crew is experienced in heavy weather.

[athos]

Nothing found yet
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=471320

[bits44]

http://www.turkishpress.com/world/news. ... 48hmgs.xml

[itsdoctorv]

This came out 20 mins ago: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiap ... index.html
I guess they finally officially found it now (after countless contradicting reports).

[SN30952]

The plane was found near Band-e Ghazi in high snowy mountains
An official at the NATO headquarters in Kabul said the crash site was spotted by a Dutch Apache helicopter gunship.
All are confirmed dead.
Maj. Karen Tissot Van Patot, an alliance spokeswoman, said two helicopter gunships spotted the tail and other parts of the plane on Saturday afternoon about 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Kabul at an altitude of 3,300 meters (11,000 feet).
Helicopters have dropped Slovenian mountain rescue teams at the scene.

[Avro]

Sad story.

[SN30952]

Sad story.

Bad luck story, I would say.
Many Belgian and Dutch army men* have seen this aircraft, and will confirm these guys and girls did not deserve that bad luck. Working conditions: not easy, living conditions: idem
Of course, being rerouted to probably Peshawar, the crew encountered a new itinerary, that had to be worked in difficult operation conditions.
Did they make a too short turn and hit the peak? I cannot believe they ran out of fuel.

Kabul Airport Navigation Aid Rehabilitation
File type:PDF



*And German as well.

[SicilianFalcon]

Apparently it was a fuel problem. 3 flights without Refueling if im not mistaken.

[SN30952]

RQ 904 of Kam Air, Afghanistan's first post-Taliban private airline, vanished as it approached Kabul airport in a snowstorm.
NATO helicopters spotted parts of the wreckage some 3,300 meters up Chaperi Mountain. Only on the next Monday morning, clear skies allowed a Spanish Cougar helicopter to drop five Slovenian mountain tropers on the mountain top, these troops were lifted out again as visibility deteriorated. Later some 100 Afghan soldiers had clambered up the mountain to within 150 meters of the crash site, in freezing fog, low clouds and up to 2.5 meters of snow.

Family members had to be stopped from approaching the area to the fury of dozens of men eager to observe Muslim custom by quickly burying their dead.
Relatives worried that wolves and vultures could feed on the victims and rumors spread of looters answering calls made to their mobile phones.

It' a wild country....
Remember on March 19, 1998, an Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 slammed into a peak South of Kabul, killing all 45 passengers and crew. This one struck the 914 m Sharki Baratayi mountain 90 m below the summit..

Note: People with aquariums noticed "chapari" but this 'Epiplatys chaperi chaperi' is a Westafrcan fish seen in aquariums. It got its name from a frenchmen: Monsieur Chaper. Nothing to do with the mountain.
How I know? Sabena used to have many cargo client-whole sellers of tropical aquarium fishes forwarding from BKK, SIN and West Africa. As the carrier was/is responsible for the transport, he has to check for protected species. But this does not make me an expert.

[SN30952]

Een nederlander, irrigatie-ingenieur die in Afghanistan werkzaam was is bij de slachtoffers.
See and enlarge picture of KamAir 737 tail.

A dutch engineer is among the victims, he boarded the fatal flight as last minute passenger. He was onto AMS via Kabul.
Does that explains maybe why a dutch heli was quick to search?
Belgians and their families would be grateful if the Belgian troops in Kabul would have reacted that swiftly, in case a fellow belgian would have be victim of a crash in the area, wouldn't we?

Are international troops all over the planet evolving towards a globalisation of a western police and rescue organisation, including first aid service, one could ask?

[earthman]

I think the dutch heli was quick to search because the dutch have four AH-64D Apaches stationed in the area, which are equipped with surveillance equipment which comes in very handy when looking for a crash site.

[SN30952]

I think the dutch heli was quick to search because the dutch have four AH-64D Apaches stationed in the area, which are equipped with surveillance equipment which comes in very handy when looking for a crash site.

And 6 dutch F-16's to follow.
As long the Belgians fly in the beer.... 8)

[SN30952]

NATO-troops in Afghanistan are preparing to build a helipad near the site of last week's crash of an Afghan KamAir, at an altitude of nearly 3,000 meters on Chaperi mountain near Kabul.

United Nations has grounded another Boeing 737 hired from Kam Air.

[SicilianFalcon]

http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1108408951.html

[SN30952]

Did you also see the footage on TV: some soldiers with snowshovels digging in the snow at about 5 metres from the tail of the crashed aircraft: the English comment was: it will be a longtime job and the blackbox was already found, but not the voice recorder.
The view of the aircraft tail was not a nice one indeed.
Asian (satelite) TV stations show much more than is een in the West.

[HorsePower]

One Afghan soldier killed, one wounded in mine blast at plane crash site:
http://www.air-cosmos.com/AFP/preview.a ... 3e3ukb.xml

Seb.