A search was under way in Afghanistan today for a Turkmen helicopter that went missing with seven Turkmen crew aboard while returning home from assisting with earthquake relief in Pakistan, officials said.
The Russian-made Mi-8 transport helicopter, which had been chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, had ended its mission and took off from the northwestern Pakistani town of Peshawar bound for Turkmenistan at about noon on Friday.
It lost radio contact with ICRC staff on the ground as soon as it crossed into Afghan airspace a short time later, said Rashad Akhundov, a spokesman for the ICRC in Muzaffarabad, the centre of relief operations for the October 8th earthquake.
Aircraft, including F-16 and Harrier warplanes, from the NATO and U.S.-led military forces in Afghanistan were taking part in a search operation concentrating on an area south of the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, to the Pakistani border.
The helicopter had not entered Bagram's air traffic control space and would have had to cross high ranges of snow-covered mountains after crossing into Afghanistan, NATO spokesman Major
Andy Elmes said.
Temperatures in the mountains fall as low as minus 30 Celsius (-22 F).
Maj. Elmes said there was no indication the helicopter had come under fire from Islamist insurgents in the border region.
It had been carrying seven crew, all Turkmen, including pilots and mechanics, Mr Akhundov said. It had been involved in emergency work in earthquake-hit Pakistani Kashmir since October.