Accident

The aircraft lost communication during the worst winter snowstorm in 5 years. The cause of the loss of communication, and the subsequent crash, is presently unknown. Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah stated that his guerrilla fighters had not shot down the plane and expressed sadness at the crash. Air traffic control for the Kabul area is provided by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Near to Kabul is Bagram Air Base, which has been in control of the U.S. military forces. It was possible for flight 904 to have diverted and land at Bagram Air Base instead of Kabul International Airport.

Rescue operation

A rescue operation was launched under atrocious weather conditions by the ISAF and Afghan National Army (ANA), and the tail of the plane was sighted from two Dutch Apache helicopters at around 9:30 a.m. UTC.

The ISAF made numerous unsuccessful rescue attempts by helicopters. When those attempts failed the Afghan Ministry of Defense ordered the ANA's Central Corps to assemble a team to attempt a rescue of victims presumed to be alive. The Afghan National Army Commando responded on foot but were forced leave due to a snowstorm. Fourth day from the crash ISAF rescue team was able to reach the crashsite and confirmed all passenger and crewmen dead.

The crash site was at an altitude of 11,000 feet on the peak of the Chaperi Mountain, 20 miles east of the Afghan capital of Kabul.

It was discovered that all 104 passenger and crew on board were killed, and the plane was completely destroyed. The flight data recorder had been found and turned over to US National Transportation Safety Board analysis. The cockpit voice recorder which would confirm or deny the alleged request and denial to land at Bagram Air Base has not been located.

Casualties

Of the 104 people on board, 96 were passengers and eight were crew. At least 25 were foreign nationals: 9 Turkish, 6 Americans, 4 Russians, 3 Italians, 1 Dutch, and 1 Iranian, as well as the first officer, who held dual citizenship in Canada and Russia. According to reports, the Russians were crew members, the Turkish were civilians working for Turkey-based firms, and the Italians included an architect working for the United Nations Andrea Pollastri, as well as another Italian civilian and a navy captain. Three of the six Americans on board were women working for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based NGO Management Sciences for Health (MSH), and one was a Dutch water resources engineer, team-leader for a development project in the western basins.

Kam Air

Kam Air is a private airline established in 2003 operating a fleet of leased Boeing and Antonov aircraft on both domestic and international routes. The plane that crashed during flight 904 was a Boeing 737-200 registered EX-037, which was originally delivered to Nordair as C-GNDR in 1980. It had been leased by Kam Air and operated by Phoenix Aviation, a firm based at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.