Aircraft owner says weather to blame for Kam Air crash

Airline Industry Information, Feb 9, 2005

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

The weather was to blame for the crash in Afghanistan of the Boeing 737 aircraft operated by Kam Air, the owner has said.

Phoenix Aviation, a company based in the United Arab Emirates, owned the aircraft that had been leased to Kam Air. Phoenix Aviation said that the aircraft crashed due to the weather conditions and not because of safety issues, Reuters reported. The owner reportedly made the comment after a decision by a United Nations agency in Afghanistan to suspend a lease contract for another Boeing 737 from Phoenix Aviation as a safety precaution after the crash.

Charles Vincent, the representative in Kabul for the World Food Programme, which manages the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), said that the decision was a precaution more than anything else and not prompted by any security concerns.

Separately, NATO engineers have today (9 February) been preparing to build a helipad at the site of the wreckage of the Kam Air flight.

The engineers are reportedly hoping to increase the speed of the recovery of the 104 victims of the crash but engineers as well as Afghan teams were waiting at the Kabul airport for an improvement of the weather conditions.

The crashed Boeing 737 was operated by Afghanistan's first post-Taliban private airline. The Kam Air aircraft disappeared from radar screens on 3 February while approaching Kabul from Herat. The wreckage was found by helicopters at a height of about 3,000 metres on Chaperi Mountain, The Associated Press reported. NATO troops have found debris and human remains but no survivors and the authorities have confirmed that there were no survivors among the 96 passengers and eight crew members.

The aircraft's so-called black box, the flight recorder, has not yet been found.

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