A government-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 737 operating a domestic Kandahar – Kabul flight reportedly has crashed in the country’s central Ghazni province, in Taliban-controlled territory around 1:25 p.m. local time on Monday. That’s according to a provincial government spokesperson, and confirmed by the country’s Second Vice President. Local reports suggest 83 souls on board.

The airline, however, denies this.

Facebook translates the airline’s statement as,

For the attention of dear countrymen!
The news that has been published on a number of media in the air of the afghan air in the number of media, it was not true, all afghan flights have been made in a light way!

The Civil Aviation Authority in Afghanistan says “it had received no reports of a civilian airliner going down.” Winter in Taliban territory makes it difficult to reach the reported crash area however special forces are being sent to the site.

Credit: Aktug Ates via Wikimedia Commons

If a plane crashed, thoughts will go out to the passengers and the families. If the plane was one of Ariana Afghan Airlines’ planes it will be sad for the struggling carrier and for civil aviation in the war-torn country. At this point whether a commercial plane has crashed, and its caused, is an open question. When a plane goes down there’s always initially more speculation than fact. Usually, however, we have more to go on than we know so far here.