Azernews.Az

BAKU – Representatives of Afghanistan have refused to visit the site of the recent crash of an Azerbaijani cargo plane in the country to enquire about the fate of the crew members, who were most likely killed, the Azerbaijani co-chair of the commission investigating the crash has said.

Ilham Amirov, vice-president of Azerbaijan’s state airline AzAL, told the local ANS TV channel that the Azerbaijani commission members were even forbidden to leave the hotel in Kabul they are staying in.

An official of the Afghan transport ministry has claimed that it was meaningless to visit the region where the plane crashed, saying everything has turned into ashes during the explosion and fire on board, except the "black box". The official added that US servicemen who submitted the "black box" to the transport ministry said they had not seen any human remains at the crash site.

However, it remains unclear whether or not the "black box" that was found belonged to the Azerbaijani plane.

Amirov said scripts on the "black box" shown on the photos made at the site were illegible.

"Only after these scripts are deciphered and checked with the passport of the plane will it be possible to conclude if the black box was derived from the Azerbaijani plane."

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's mission to NATO asked the alliance for authorization to visit the region north of Kabul where the plane crashed. Head of the mission, Khazar Ibrahim, said Baku had requested NATO’s assistance to retrieve the remains of the crash victims.

"We have again appealed to NATO in light of the current situation. And they pledged to do everything possible to help us," Ibrahim said.

All nine crew members on board - five citizens of Azerbaijan and four Uzbek nationals - were reportedly killed after the IL-76 plane carrying cargo to the international coalition forces in Afghanistan crashed in the Parwan province on July 6. The plane was carrying 18 tons of cargo from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Bagram. The city is located around 45 km north of the Afghan capital and is home to the largest US air base in the country.

The Taliban reportedly claimed responsibility for the incident.

Members of the commission investigating the crash have still not reached the crash site due to the operations being waged there against the Taliban.

The IL-76 with loading capacity of 40 tons was manufactured in Russia in 2005.