A small plane with four Germans and an Iraqi aboard crashed in mountainous northern Iraq yesterday en route to Iraq from Azerbaijan, the US military and Iraqi officials said today.
"I can confirm it was a civilian plane and that the plane crashed," a spokesman for the US military in Iraq said.
Kameran Ahmad, the director of Sulaiymaniya airport, said aviation officials lost contact with the plane on Thursday when it was flying at 8,000 feet in northern Iraq.
Ahmad said that he had received an email the day before the plane was due to arrive yesterday and that it listed the passengers as four Germans and an Iraqi.
"We have no information where the plane fell. The search for it is continuing," Ahmad said, adding there was a snowstorm at the time the plane went missing.
"The pilot had had no problems until that point. We called it several times. Contacted Kirkuk base and other alternative airports but nobody had heard from it. We are still looking for it."
Germany's Foreign Ministry said the plane was en route from Baku to Iraq when it went missing.