STRANE STORIE  

• Pakistan, cade piccolo aereo a bordo anche un ministro afgano

                                         ("La Repubblica", 24/2/2003)

• Pakistan Plane crash Kills All 8 Aboard

                                                            ("The Guardian", 24/2/2003)

KARACHI - Un aereo Cessna con 8 persone a bordo, tra cui il ministro afgano per le Risorse petrolifere e minerarie, Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, è precipitato stamane al largo delle coste pakistane. Tra i passeggeri, Sun Chang Feng, presidente della MCC Resource Development, una società cinese che costruisce oleodotti e tre funzionari del governo di Kabul e uno del ministero degli Esteri pakistano.

Le autorità pakistane hanno perso il contatto radar su capo Monz, non lontano dalla città portuale di Karachi, nel sud del Paese, e poco più tardi la marina militare ha localizzato il relitto dell'aereo a 30 miglia dalla costa e recuperato quattro corpi che però non sono stati ancora identificati. I soccorritori, che stanno ancora cercando gli altri cinque che erano al bordo del velivolo temono che non vi siano superstiti.

Secondo la Star Aviation, compagnia noleggiatrice del Cessna 402, un bimotore turboelica in grado di trasportare 8 persone, il velivolo apparteneva all'Edhi, un'associazione umanitaria pakistana. L'aereo era partito da Karachi ed era diretto a Khazak, nella provincia pakistana del Belucistan, al confine con l'Iran. Durante il fine settimana, Mohammadi aveva avuto alcuni colloqui in Pakistan per definire un progetto per la realizzazione di un imponente oleodotto dal Turkmenistan al Pakistan attraverso l'Afghanistan.

Il presidente afgano Hamid Karzai, che sta partecipando al vertice dei paesi non allineati a Kuala Lumpur, dopo aver saputo della tragedia ha detto: "E' una notizia scioccante e triste. Abbiamo perso un ottimo e qualificato ministro, se le informazioni che giungono sono vere. E siamo addolorati".

("La Repubblica", 24/2/2003)

Pakistan Plane Crash Kills All 8 Aboard

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - A small plane crashed into the Arabian Sea off Pakistan's southern coast Monday, killing all eight people on board, including Afghanistan's minister of mines and industry, officials said.

Wreckage from the Cessna 402, which crashed shortly after takeoff in clear weather, was found in the Arabian Sea. The aircraft was en route from Karachi's international airport to Jazak, near the Iranian border in southwestern Baluchistan.

Six bodies have been recovered, said a naval spokesman Roshan Khayal.

An investigation into the crash is underway and so far there have been no reports of possible causes. Skies were clear at the time, airport officials said.

Among the eight dead was Afghanistan's Mines and Industries Minister, Juma Mohammed Mohammedi, and Sun Changshen, the Pakistan representative of the China Metallurgical Construction Co.

``It is a tragic incident. The government of Pakistan has expressed sympathies with the government and the people of Afghanistan,'' said Aziz Ahmed Khan, Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman.

The aircraft, which was owned by Pakistan's largest private welfare organization, Edhi Trust, received its last air worthiness certificate in November 2002, according to Trust officials.

The aircraft had been chartered to take a delegation of Afghan officials to inspect a copper mine operated by the Chinese company near Jazak. In Kabul, officials said Mohammedi wanted to see the Chinese-operated mine to possibly adopt similar mining techniques at Afghan copper mines in Afghanistan's Logar province.

It crashed 28 miles west of the southern port city of Karachi, losing contact with the control tower 29 minutes into the 480-mile flight, said Pervez George, of the civil aviation authority that governs air traffic in Pakistan.

Two pieces of the plane were found floating on the sea, George said.

Also on board were four other Afghan officials, and two Pakistani crew members, Khan told reporters in the federal capital of Islamabad.

While in Pakistan, the Afghan minister participated in talks on a $3.2-billion project to build a pipeline to carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India.

In Kabul, Afghanistan's Deputy Industries Minister Mir Mohammed Mafouz Nedai said he was ``very shaken'' by the news.

The crash was the second in less than a week in Pakistan.

Last week, a Pakistani air force plane on a routine mission plowed into a mountainside under heavy fog in remote northwestern Pakistan, killing the air force chief and all 16 others on board.

("The Guardian", 24/2/2003)