WASHINGTON, Nov 5: An unmanned US air force Predator spy plane has been lost over Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Monday.

Spokesman Richard McGraw said the Predator drone surveillance plane disappeared on Friday.

The US Central Command, which is conducting the Afghanistan campaign, said in a statement the plane was lost during a mission in bad weather.

“Reports indicate that severe weather contributed to the loss,” the statement said.

There are no plans to recover the aircraft, “the first military unmanned aerial vehicle lost in support of Operation Enduring Freedom”, the statement said, adding no sensitive technology would be lost should it fall into the hands of the Taliban.

Another Predator plane, operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, was lost over Afghanistan prior to the launch on Oct 7 of the US bombing against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a senior defence official said.

Washington acknowledged on Friday that a helicopter had crashed in bad weather in Afghanistan, the first US aircraft lost in the campaign, officials said.

Four injured crew members were rescued and an airstrike was called in to destroy the badly-damaged helicopter.

The ground-controlled Predator, with a four-cylinder, 105-horsepower turbo-charged engine, can reach speeds of 120 knots. It has a range of up to 700 kilometres and is designed to spy on enemy surface targets or survey movement of troops or materials from high altitude.

Predators were introduced during the Balkans war, and one of them crashed during the Kosovo conflict. Iraq has said it has shot down three US spy planes this year and Washington has acknowledged losing one spy plane in October. —AFP