05 February 2005	Saturday	25 Zilhaj 1425

KABUL, Feb 4: An Afghan passenger jet carrying 104 passengers including at least 16 foreigners is thought to have crashed, officials said on Friday, as NATO and Afghan troops called off their search for the night.

The wreckage of the private Kam Air Boeing 737-200 was found east of Kabul, according to a Western security official and a source close to the search mission, while Turkish officials also said the aircraft had crashed.

The Afghan government denied it had found the plane, which vanished from radar screens while flying from the western city of Herat to the capital on Thursday, saying only that the search had been suspended.

NATO-led peacekeepers troops and Afghan forces launched a huge hunt for the aircraft once it became clear that it had not been able to divert to north western Pakistan as originally hoped.

Nine Turks and an Italian were confirmed as being among the 96 passengers while three Americans were thought to have been on the plane. Six Russian and two Afghan crew members were also aboard, officials said.

"The search operation conducted jointly by ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), coalition forces and the ministry of defence and interior lasted for today without finding anything," said defence ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

"The search will continue tomorrow in eastern, northe astern and south eastern areas of Kabul," added Gen Azimi, who said he was also speaking on behalf of a commission established on Friday to search for the 737.

But the Turkish foreign ministry issued a statement saying it had "learned with great regret" that the plane had crashed. A senior Turkish diplomat said the accident was "announced by the Afghan transport ministry."

A Western security official told said the plane was found 35 kilometers east of Kabul. "We don't know if there are any survivors," the source said. Another source close to the search mission said the plane had been located but put the distance from the capital at 57 kilometers.

ISAF has coordinated the rescue mission, conducting ground and helicopter searches of the area. Afghan forces including 10 helicopters were also involved in the operation, Azimi said.

Three American women working for the US-based Management Science for Health company were probably on the plane, operations manager Bill Shiffbauer said. Other officials said they were aged between 20 and 30.

"We are fairly certain that three of our staff are in the plane, three American women. We're hoping for a miracle, but it appears that they were in (the plane)," he said.

The Turks were civilians working in Afghanistan for firms based in their own country, officials in Ankara said.

Italian officials said naval Commander Bruno Vianini, who arrived two weeks ago to help reconstruction in Herat, was on the flight, while there were fears for two other Italians who could have taken the same plane.

Afghan Transport Minister Enayatullah Qasimi said earlier that the plane had dropped off radar screens "about 3.1 miles east of Kabul" shortly after speaking to air traffic controllers on Thursday.

Airline officials said the last contact with the plane was around 3:15 pm (1045 GMT) on Thursday when it asked Kabul for permission to land at Peshawar airport because of the snow. The airline had frantically checked with all other nearby airports to see if the 737 had managed to land somewhere else.

ISAF said the plane had contacted the US-led coalition airbase at Bagram, near Kabul, shortly before it crashed but was instructed to talk to Kabul airport. Pakistan officials said the jet never contacted Peshawar and did not land at any airports in the country.

Planes bound for Kabul are regularly diverted to Peshawar during the winter months, when blizzards reduce visibility and make landing hazardous in the mountainous region. Kabul airport is also closed to civilian aircraft at night. -AFP