KABUL, Feb 8 (AFP) - Bad weather again halted efforts to recover bodies from a crashed Afghan airliner Tuesday as officials said they were still hunting the "black boxes" that could reveal the cause of the tragedy.
NATO-led troops reached the wreckage of the Kam Air Boeing 737-200 by helicopter on Monday, four days after it hit a mountain, and found three bodies but nothing to indicate any of the 104 people on board had survived.
However they were unable to return as low visibility and freezing fog grounded flights to the isolated site by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the peacekeepers based in Afghanistan.
"Nothing is flying yet", said ISAF spokesman Major Karen Tissot van Patot on Tuesday afternoon.
Investigators are still examining how the jet, which was flying from the western city of Herat to Kabul, ended up crashing some 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of the capital on Thursday.
Key to the probe will be the black boxes -- the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder installed on all jetliners. Asked if the boxes had been found yet, the ISAF spokesman replied: "Not yet."
The US military fielded questions for a second day about whether the plane had asked to land at the American air base at Bagram, near Kabul, before it crashed. On Monday the US said there was no indication it had.
"The issue is under investigation," said US-led coalition spokesman Major Steve Wollman when asked what contact the jet had with Bagram. "When the investigation is over ... the authorities will decide what is made public".
Meanwhile, Afghan president Hamid Karzai's spokesman conceded for the first time Tuesday that there were not likely to be any survivors from the crash. He had previously been careful not to dismiss the possibility.
"Unfortunately, with deep sorrow, indications show that no one might have survived," spokesman Jawed Ludin told a weekly press briefing.
Among those on board were 24 foreigners -- six Americans, one Iranian, three Italians, nine Turks, a Canadian and four Russian crew members.
Defense Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said recovery and identification of the victims would be very complicated.
"The large amount of fuel in the tank of the plane caused a very huge explosion which makes it hard to recognize both the plane and the bodies", he told AFP. "A large percentage of the bodies have been shattered."
The first human remains were found by an ISAF team of Slovenian mountain rescuers on Monday but they have been left at the site for examination by a medical team and investigators.
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.
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.
In September last year the Antonov skidded off the runway while landing at Kabul airport, leaving some passengers with minor injuries.
02/08/2005 14:15 GMT - AFP