Russian flight carrying six goes missing over Afghanistan, crash reported

A Russian-registered charter plane with six people on board disappeared from radar screens over Afghanistan a day earlier, Russian aviation authorities said on Sunday, after Afghan police said they had received reports of a crash.

The plane was a charter ambulance flight travelling from Thailand’s Utapao Airport in Pattaya to Moscow via India and Uzbekistan on a French-made Dassault Aviation (AM.PA) Falcon 10 jet manufactured in 1978, Russian aviation authorities said in a statement.

About 25 minutes before the plane vanished from radar screens, the pilot warned that fuel was running low and that the plane would try to land at an airport in Tajikistan, Russian news outlet SHOT reported, citing an unnamed source.

The pilot then reported that one engine had stopped, and then that the second one had also stopped, SHOT reported.

The flight was carrying out a private medical evacuation from Thailand’s Pattaya, a popular tourist destination for Russians, to Moscow, Russian state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the Russian embassy in Bangkok.