Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Azerbaijani cargo plane that crashed in Afghanistan in July was not shot down by a Taliban missile, but the crash resulted from a mistake of its crew, preliminary findings of an expertise of the "black box" revealed, Azerbaijan’s Turan news agency reported.

According to the expertise, before landing at the Bagram airport near Kabul, the crew captain had turned down help from the air traffic controller and assumed responsibility for landing the plane visually. The mistake caused the plane to hit the mountains.

Preliminary information on the causes of the plane crash disclosed on Monday confirms that the IL-76, which was carrying cargo to the international coalition forces in Afghanistan, was not shot down by the Taliban. Azerbaijani state civil aviation administration said the commission investigating the crash concluded that "there is no possibility of interference by illegal forces", but added that the investigation was underway and the commission is still awaiting final conclusions.

The "black box" was sent to the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee on August 15. After the expertise is completed, the data will be transferred to Afghanistan’s aviation authority to compile a final report.

The IL-76 plane, which was carrying 18 tons of cargo from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Bagram, crashed in the Parwan province, north of Kabul, on July 6, killing all nine crew members on board - five citizens of Azerbaijan and four Uzbek nationals.

NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman, Tim James, said the plane, which was not owned by NATO but was used to assist ISAF under an agreement signed, had hit the mountains at the altitude of 3,800 meters. But a Taliban spokesman told Afghan media that the Taliban had allegedly shot down the Azerbaijani aircraft "because it was carrying weapons to US servicemen based in Afghanistan".

The plane with loading capacity of 40 tons, manufactured in Russia in 2005, last underwent an inspection in June this year.