A Russian private plane carrying six people crashed in a remote area in rural Afghanistan, but the pilot and some other people on board survived, the Taliban movement announced on Sunday.

Regional spokesman Zabihullah Amiri said the incident occurred on Saturday in a mountainous area in Badakhshan province, adding that a rescue team was dispatched to the area. The province is located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of the Afghan capital Kabul. It is a rural and mountainous area inhabited by only a few thousand residents.

The Taliban's Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation issued a statement online on Sunday saying the plane was found in the Kuf Ab area of the province near Mount Arooz Koh.

The statement said, “The Islamic Emirate’s search team found the pilot.” It added, “According to the pilot, four people including the pilot are alive... and the search and assistance by the Islamic Emirate investigation team for the remaining survivors is ongoing.”

There was no independent confirmation of the Taliban statement. The Taliban movement also released a video of the snow-covered mountains in the area.

In Moscow, Russian civil aviation authorities said a Dassault Falcon 10 plane disappeared carrying four crew members and two passengers. Authorities said the Russian-registered aircraft “lost contact and disappeared from radar screens.” The flight was described as departing from U-Tapao Rayong-Pattaya International Airport in Thailand.

The plane was operating as a chartered medical evacuation flight en route from Jaya, India, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, then to Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow.

Russian officials said the plane was built in 1978 and owned by Athletic Group LLC and a private individual. The Associated Press was unable to reach the owners immediately.

The Russian Investigative Committee later said it opened a criminal case on charges related to potential violations of aviation safety rules or negligence. The procedures require opening such investigations in collision accidents.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said the Russian embassy in Afghanistan is working with local authorities regarding the incident.

A separate Taliban statement issued by Abdul Wahid Rayan, spokesperson for the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture, described the plane as “belonging to a Moroccan company.” Similarly, Indian civil aviation officials described the plane as registered in Morocco.

The plane belonged to a Morocco-based medical evacuation company. However, a man answering a phone number associated with it on Sunday said the company was no longer operating and that the plane is now owned by another person.

Rayan blamed “an engine problem” for the incident without going into details. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghan Air Force rescue teams are searching the area.

Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24, analyzed by the Associated Press, showed the plane’s last location south of the city of Peshawar in Pakistan at around 1330 GMT on Saturday.

International airlines have largely avoided Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country in 2021. Planes flying briefly pass through Afghan airspace for only a few minutes while flying over the low-population Wakhan corridor in Badakhshan province, a narrow corridor jutting from the east of the country between Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Typically, planes sharply turn north around Peshawar and follow the Pakistan border before briefly entering Afghanistan. Zebak is near the start of the Wakhan corridor.

Although it is landlocked, Afghanistan’s location in Central Asia means it lies along the most direct routes for travelers from India to Europe and the Americas. After the Taliban took power, civil aviation simply halted as ground controllers no longer managed the airspace.

In addition to concerns about anti-aircraft fire, especially after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in 2014, authorities worldwide issued orders for their commercial planes to avoid the area.

While countries have slowly eased these restrictions, concerns remain about flying over the country. Two UAE airlines recently resumed their commercial flights to Kabul.

The last fatal plane crash in Afghanistan was in 2020, when a U.S. Air Force Bombardier E-11A crashed in Ghazni province, killing two American soldiers.