2 dead in Russian plane crash in Afghanistan, Moscow confirms

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) — Russia has said that two people were killed in a private plane that crashed in Afghanistan over the weekend.

In comments published a day after the Sunday crash of the Russian aircraft, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the country's Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov met with survivors who were transported to a hospital in the capital Kabul.

"Unfortunately, we confirm the death of two Russian citizens in a medical plane crash in northeastern Afghanistan. We express our sincere condolences to their families and friends," she said.

Zakharova thanked the Afghan authorities for their help in organizing a search and rescue operation despite inaccessible mountainous terrain and low temperatures.

In a separate statement, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency reported the crash of the Russian Falcon 10 plane, which vanished from the radar on Saturday evening.

The agency said six people were on board, adding that while two died, four survived.

The aircraft was on charter medical flight between the city of Gaya in India, Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent, and the toen of Zhukovsky in Russia, it said.