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Kurdish, US teams look for plane missing
in Kurdistan
18.2.2006
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SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan-Iraq, (Feb 18) - Kurdish
rescue teams waded through the snow-covered
mountains of Kurdistan (northern Iraq) on Saturday,
searching for a small plane that crashed two days
ago with six people aboard.
"We are still looking for it. There is snow
everywhere and we are talking about wild areas that
are difficult to enter and search," said Kameran
Ahmad, the director of Sulaimaniya airport. "We are
heading now to search areas but conditions are
difficult."
The plane, which was carrying three German
businessmen, an Iraqi and two pilots whose
nationalities have not been identified, went missing
on Thursday while en route to the northeastern Iraqi
city of Sulaimaniya from Azerbaijan.
Ahmad said aviation officials lost contact with the
plane in daylight when it was flying at 8,000 feet
(2,400 metres) in northern Iraq and it had made no
contact with alternative airports or bases. There
was a snow storm at the time, he said.
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C501 Cessna jet |
Around 1,000 Kurds,
including Kurdish peshmerga militiamen who know the
territory well, Sulaimaniyah rescue teams, border
guards and government teams were searching all
areas.
A five-member U.S. military team has also joined the
search and rescue, Ahmad said.
Peter McHugh, aviation counsellor at the U.S.
embassy in Iraq, said U.S. aircraft were involved in
search efforts.
"We continue looking for the location of the plane.
We have not yet fixed a location. There is snow and
it is not a friendly terrain," McHugh said.
A police spokesman in the southern German state of
Bavaria told Reuters that the Cessna plane was
carrying three German employees of a company from a
town to the north of Munich, along with an Iraqi
business partner and two pilots.
He said the plane belonged to the firm and the
passengers were on a business trip. He declined to
name the company.
The plane flew from Munich to Azerbaijan and was on
its way to northern Iraq.
Reuters
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