KurdistanObserver.com

German Business Jet Missing

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan-Iraq Feb 17, (AFP) - A small civilian aircraft, en route from Azerbaijan to Iraqi Kurdistan, is missing in mountainous of Kurdistan (northern Iraq) and search teams have been dispatched to look for it, the director of Sulaimani airport told AFP.

We lost radio contact at 11:14 pm (1914 GMT) with the private plane which was transporting five Azerbaijani businessmen and have not heard from the plane since," Kamaran Ahmad Abdallah said Friday.

Interior ministry troops and Kurdish militiamen have been dispatched to an area near the Iranian border, some 100 kilometres (65 miles) north of the town of Halabja, to search for the missing plane, he said.

AP reports that at least four Germans and a Kurd were believed to be aboard a small German-registered business jet missing in mountainous northern Iraq, the director of Sulaimani airport said Friday.

The weather was snowy at the time contact was lost with the pilot, he added.

Sulaimani airport, some 330 kilometres (205 miles) north of Baghdad (Iraq), was recently opened to international flights.