Azerbaijan plane crashes in Afghanistan, 7 dead

KABUL – A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan says seven people were killed when a plane belonging to Silk Way Airlines of Azerbaijan crashed in the country’s south.

He said Thursday the plane had been carrying nine people when it crashed on take-off from Camp Dwyer, a military airport in Helmand province, a day earlier.

He says two survivors were flown to Kandahar Airfield for treatment. The passengers are believed to be eastern European, the spokesman says.

There was “no military involvement” in the crash, he says, adding that one of the plane’s wings clipped the runway as it was taking off at 2.30 p.m. local time.

Representative of Silk War Airlines in Afghanistan could not be immediately reached for comment.