Video footage emerges of 747 crash in Afghanistan

Updated

Video footage has emerged purportedly showing a civilian cargo plane crash in Afghanistan which killed all seven crew members on board.

Rescue teams rushed to the scene after the 747 crashed inside the boundaries of Bagram airfield, a US-run base which is a key transport hub for US-led military operations in Afghanistan.

The footage shows the plane in a steep climb before it suddenly plummets back down to the ground.

The flight out of Bagram, located 50 kilometres north of Kabul, had been operated by the US-based National Air Cargo company.

National Air Cargo have told the ABC it believes the footage of the crash is authentic.

"At approximately 7am EST, National Flight NCR102 from Bagram to Dubai, UAE with seven crewmembers on board, crashed on take-off," National Air Cargo said earlier in a statement on its website.

"National will release additional information as it becomes available, in cooperation with government authorities."

It added that the cause of the crash remains unknown.

"Safety is always our top priority at National Airlines," National Airlines president Glen Joerger said.

"This is a devastating loss for our family and we'll work diligently with authorities to find the cause.

"Most importantly, our thoughts and prayers are with our crewmembers and their families."

A spokesman for the NATO military coalition said there was no reported insurgent activity in the area at the time.

Aircraft crashes are fairly frequent in Afghanistan, where the 100,000-strong international military mission relies heavily on air transport as it battles the Taliban insurgency across the country.

A NATO plane crashed in the south on Saturday, killing four US service members in another incident that the coalition said was not due to insurgent fire.

The NATO-led mission to Afghanistan is winding down before a deadline at the end of next year when all foreign combat deployments will finish, but airbases such as Bagram still support a huge multi-national military operation.

Afghan police and soldiers are taking over responsibility for fighting the Taliban, but there is growing concern over the war-torn country's prospects after 2014.

ABC/AFP

Topics: air-and-space, afghanistan

First posted