The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter.
The Taliban currently control or hold sway over around half the country.
Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor,
said the plane went down around 1:10 p.m. local time (8:40 a.m. GMT) in Deh Yak district,
some 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of the capital Kabul.
He said the crash site is in territory controlled by the Taliban.
Given the nature of this highly sensitive plane and the (very much intact) shape of the underside of the fuselage, I wonder wether the fire is caused by the crash of a way of ‘self destruction’ to prevent intel leaking.
The right wing is missing, though the fuselage is not shattered. The cockpit is missing or burned.
Is this a plane cartwheeling at touchdown and shearing of a wing and shattering the cockpit?
I also was amazed to see that so much of the fuselage was intact.
'Controlled' (belly) landing?
Surely not shot down at high altitude and down with impact. (See pictures of of MH17 and Ukrain B737 which where shattered all over the place) . Could be hit of course by some small weapon but that would be strange as the E-11s fly at high altitude.
Quite some question about the circumstances.
2 bodies recovered from Air Force plane that crashed in Afghanistan, official says.
U.S. forces have recovered the remains of two American service members
from the Air Force plane that crashed in eastern Afghanistan Monday,
a U.S. defense official told Fox News.
The two Americans recovered were the only two onboard the E-11A plane, the official added.
The aircraft is the U.S. military's version of the civilian Bombardier Global Express business jet.
Read on FC that contaminated fuel may have been the cause of this crash. At least one A10 had this problem at Bagram last Monday.
Seems the E11A did make a Mayday call at 42000ft when the problem had occured.
Ranger wrote:Read on FC that contaminated fuel may have been the cause of this crash. At least one A10 had this problem at Bagram last Monday.
Seems the E11A did make a Mayday call at 42000ft when the problem had occured.
Cheers,
Ranger
Could be an explanation for the aircraft being largely intact: Attempted crash landing following a dual engine failure.
Ben Scramble member, reader & contributor since 1984