Iran Press/Asia: Initial reports indicated it was an Afghan Ariana passenger plane that crashed in Ghazni province with 83 people on board, but the state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines rejected reports that one of its passenger planes had crashed, saying in a statement that all flights on Monday were conducted normally, and there were no incidents of any kind.
It now seems the plane that crashed in the Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, an area that is under the control of the Taliban, is an American military plane, according to a Khamma Press report.
Provincial government spokesman Arif Noori told CBS News the plane appeared to have been a flight between the southern city of Kandahar and the capital Kabul, about 200 miles to the north. Ghazni province is between those two locations.
Noori said the body of two pilots were found at the crash site and that the plane was completely destroyed. He did not mention any other casualties. Noori said it did not belong to an Afghan carrier, but could not confirm who was operating the aircraft.
Later, some experts reported that it was probably E-11A aircraft assigned to 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron. Wreck of a plane crashed today in Afghanistan looks like a U.S. military plane, a U.S. Air Force Bombardier Global 6000 / E-11A “BACN” (Battlefield Airborne Communications Node).
Also, video footage on social media sites confirmed that the wreck of the plane had a U.S. Air Forces emblem on it.
Taliban in a statement confirmed the crash of a US Force plane in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province which is under the control of the Taliban.
The cause of the crash and the number of casualties are still unknown.
E-11A is the military variant of the civil Bombardier BD-700 Global Express for use as an overhead communications-relay platform in SW Asia.
It carries Northrop Grumman Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, allowing disparate battlefield communications systems to share data.
BACN was deployed on a test Bombardier BD-700 & originally designated RC-700A under reconnaissance classification. Re-designated E-11A under the special electronics installation category.
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