Four people survived the crash of a Moscow-bound chartered ambulance flight in a mountainous area of northeastern Afghanistan, according to the Russian aviation authority on January 21.
Six people were aboard the flight, and four of them were found alive with various injuries when rescuers reached the remote site of the crash, said Rosaviatsia, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency in a statement quoted by TASS. It said the fate of the two other people was "being clarified."
The Russian-registered charter plane disappeared from radar screens on January 20, Rosaviatsia said. The ambulance flight originated in Thailand and made stops in India and Uzbekistan before crashing, Rosaviatsia said.
The four survivors were found by rescuers who reached the remote site of the crash on January 21, according to the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan. Two people died, according to provincial officials.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban-led government, said the pilot of the plane, which Rosaviatsia said was a French-made Falcon 10 jet manufactured in 1978, was among the survivors.
The Afghan Islamic Press news agency quoted Zabihullah Amiri, head of the provincial information department, as saying the plane went down between the Karan wan Munjan and Zebak districts of Badakhshan Province.
Initial reports about the crash indicated that it was an Indian passenger plane, but the Indian Ministry of Aviation said the aircraft was neither scheduled nor chartered in India.
The flight was a private medical evacuation from Thailand's Pattaya, a popular tourist destination for Russians, TASS reported, citing the Russian Embassy in Bangkok.
"On board was a bedridden patient in serious condition, a Russian citizen, who was transported from one of the hospitals in Pattaya to Russia," the RIA news agency reported, citing a source at Thailand's Utapao International Airport.