Russian businessman and wife believed to have been on private medical evacuation flight that crashed in Afghanistan, reports say

A Russian businessman and his wife are believed to have been on a private jet that crashed in Afghanistan during a medical evacuation, according to local reports.

Authorities in Afghanistan reported on Sunday that an aircraft carrying six people had crashed in the mountainous province of Badakhshan, per the Associated Press.

A statement from the Taliban’s Transportation and Civil Aviation Ministry said that the pilot was found and three other passengers were alive. The ministry said a search and rescue mission was still ongoing.

Russian civil aviation authorities confirmed that a Russian private jet had disappeared from radar, according to Russian news agency Tass was carrying businessman Anatoly Evsyukov, 65, and his wife Anna.

Business Insider could not independently the report.

A source told Russian outlet RIA Novosti that a woman on board was bedridden in serious condition and was being transported from a hospital in Pattaya, Thailand, to one in Moscow, with two stops along the way.

Along with the married couple, there was a medical team and crew on board, the report said.

Russian authorities said the Russian-registered Dassault Falcon 10 “stopped communicating and disappeared from radar screens,” per the AP.

The plane was acting as a charter ambulance flight flying from Gaya, India, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on its way to Moscow, when the crash occurred, the outlet said.

It is not clear what caused the plane to crash.

Abdul Wahid Rayan, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Information and Culture Ministry, blamed an “engine problem” for the crash, in a statement, but did not elaborate, per the AP.

Russian officials said the plane belongs to Athletic Group LLC and a private individual, according to the outlet.

International carriers have largely avoided flying over Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in 2021, as ground controllers stopped managing the airspace, the AP noted.

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