Accessibility links

Breaking News

US C-130 Crash in Afghanistan Kills 11

update

FILE - Afghan National Army soldiers line up to get into a C-130 Hercules at Kandahar Air Base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Aug. 18, 2015.
FILE - Afghan National Army soldiers line up to get into a C-130 Hercules at Kandahar Air Base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Aug. 18, 2015.

An American C-130 military transport plane crashed at Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan, killing 11 people.

The crash happened shortly after midnight local time Friday. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

U.S. defense officials at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan said the crew, comprised of six U.S. service members, died in the crash.

Five civilian contractors who worked for NATO's Resolute Support training mission also died in the crash.

The Taliban claims to have shot down the aircraft. However, U.S. Air Force Major Tony Wickman dismissed that claim, stating he could say "with a high degree of confidence that an enemy attack did not contribute to the crash."

The C-130 Hercules is a four-engine cargo plane built by Lockheed Martin.

There are about 1,000 coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, including U.S. and Polish forces, as well as about 40,000 Afghan troops, according to NATO.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG