KABUL: A Russian-registered private plane carrying six people is believed to have crashed in a remote area of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation said on Sunday.

The crash took place on Saturday night in a mountainous area near Zebak district in the northeastern Badakhshan province, which borders China, Tajikistan, and Pakistan.

“According to initial information, a Falcon 10 Russian private jet plane carrying six crew and passengers was heading to Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan) from India yesterday at 7 p.m.

“Due to some technical problem, the plane lost its signal. Possibly when it was over the outskirts of Zebak and Kuran wa Munjan districts of northeastern Badakhshan province, it got lost and crashed,” Imamuddin Ahmadi, civil aviation ministry spokesman, told Arab News.

Ahmadi said the ministry had dispatched a team to investigate the incident and that more details would follow.

The mighty Hindu Kush mountain range cuts through the rural Afghan province, which is home to the nation’s highest mountain, Mount Noshaq, at 7,492 meters high.

Russian aviation authorities said in a statement that the plane was a charter ambulance flight traveling from the Indian city of Gaya, via Uzbekistan, to Moscow on a French-made Dassault Aviation Falcon 10 manufactured in 1978.

“On the evening of Saturday, Jan. 20, while in the airspace of Afghanistan (near the border of Tajikistan), the Falcon 10 aircraft, registered in the state register of civil aircraft of the Russian Federation, stopped communicating and disappeared from radar screens,” the statement added.

“There were six people on board the plane – four crew members and two passengers.”

Russian authorities also said they were in contact with their Afghan and Tajikistan counterparts.

“The search for the aircraft is underway.”