Afghan crash search could take weeks as first bodies found

KABUL, Feb 7 (AFP) - NATO-led troops said the recovery of all the bodies from the wreckage of an Afghan jet carrying 104 people could take several weeks, as search teams found the first human remains at the crash site Monday.
Bad weather forced international peacekeepers to halt operations, hours after a helicopter dropped them near the Kam Air Boeing 737-200 for the first time since the plane hit a mountain east of Kabul on Thursday.
Afghan troops travelling overland also made it to the desolate snowfield on Monday and were planning to remain at the site, but they were not allowed to touch the bodies or the wreckage, officials said.
"There is no estimation of how long it could take... but it could take several weeks", said Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Poulain, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) based in Afghanistan.
The bodies of three victims, whose nationalities were not known, were found at the site, an Afghan army general told an AFP reporter on board a helicopter flying over the site at Chaperi Ghar.
"They have found human remains," confirmed ISAF's Poulain.
The tail of the doomed plane with the Kam Air logo could be seen on the top of the mountain while a piece of debris that looked like the engine was visible further down on the other side, an AFP reporter said.
However, there appeared to be no sign of major parts such as the fuselage or the wings.
The jet went missing on Thursday during a flight from the western city of Herat to Kabul. Among those on board were 24 foreigners -- six Americans, one Iranian, three Italians, nine Turks, a Canadian and four Russian crew members.
Its wreckage was spotted Saturday 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of the capital at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,900 feet) after an intensive search, but rescuers could not reach the site until early Monday.
Six mountain rescue specialists from Slovenia who were the first at the site were later airlifted out as aerial operations were suspended yet again due to the poor weather, Poulain added.
Rescue efforts have consistently been hampered by the wintry weather, which is also thought to have been a contributing factor in the disaster.
Defence ministry spokesman General Mohammed Zahir Azimi said Afghan National Army soldiers reached the site at around 1:00 pm (0830 GMT) after nearly a day's trek up the mountain.
"They do not have authorisation to touch the bodies or the wreckage," he added.
A team of doctors was due to reach the site soon as well as an investigation team, while a joint investigative team with members from the countries whose citizens were on board could also go, he said.
With a probe into the crash still pending, the US military denied persistent reports that the twin-engined plane had requested permission to land at the American air base at Bagram.
"There was no indication that the aircraft was ever intended to go to Bagram or asked to land at Bagram -- the confusion is that the Bagram controller is the approach controller that controls the Kabul national air space," US Marine Corps pilot Major Clay Beradi told a news conference.
Kabul is surrounded by mountains and presents a challenge to pilots, although officials have said a low visibility landing system had been operating at the city's airport for the past month and a half.
Kam Air is the first privately run Afghan airline and was launched in November 2003 with a fleet comprising a Boeing 767, a Boeing 727, an Antonov 24 and the Boeing 737 which crashed.
The accident will be Afghanistan's worst air tragedy if all the deaths are confirmed. Forty-five people died when an Afghan Ariana Airline 727 hit a mountain near Kabul in the last major passenger plane crash in March 1998.

02/07/2005 13:36 GMT - AFP