2011 Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin Il - 76 crash A Silk Way Airlines Ilyushin Il - 76 cargo aircraft crashed into a hillside on , short of landing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan , killing all nine people on board . It was transporting a load of of fuel for the International Security Assistance Force based in Bagram . The aircraft broke up and burned when it hit the ground . Attempts to reach the crash site were repelled by gunfire , in spite of assurances from the International Security Assistance Force that the Taliban was not active in the area at the time . Azerbaijani Ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan Dashgin Shikarova considered that reports indicating technical problems with the 4K - AZ55 are not true ; in his opinion the Taliban shot the aircraft down . The bodies of the crew were located on . Aircraft . The aircraft involved in the accident was a 2005 - built Ilyushin Il - 76TD , registration 4K - AZ55 and serial number 2053420680 , owned by Silk Way Holding , a company linked to Azerbaijan Airlines . Powered with a four - Soloviev D - 30 KP - 2 power plant , the aircraft received its last full technical inspection on and had passed a regular technical inspection one month prior to the crash . The Azerbaijani Civil Aviation Authority stated that the pilot in command , born in 1969 , had logged more than 4 , 570 flying hours at the time of the accident . Description of the accident . The aircraft was about to complete a cargo flight from Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku , transporting of fuel for the International Security Assistance Force , based in Bagram ; it had departed Baku at 16 : 26 GMT and was scheduled to land at the Bagram Air Base at 21 : 10 GMT on . Moments prior to landing at Bagram , the aircraft disappeared from the radar screens ; according to an air traffic controller in Kabul , there was a flash in the sky at a height of some away from their observation point . It was later confirmed that the aircraft plunged into a hillside . According to the Azerbaijani Civil Aviation Authority , no problems had been reported before communications with the aircraft were lost . The 4K - AZ55 had flown the Kuwait – Baku route earlier without any reported incident . Silk Way Airlines temporarily halted its operations to Afghanistan after the accident ; they were resumed on . Upon crashing , the aircraft broke up into 10 to 20 pieces . Fragments of the burnt fuselage were found in the Parvand Province , north of Afghanistan ' s capital , the day after the crash . Azerbaijan Airlines ' vice - president , who also co - chaired the committee that investigated the accident , declared that recovery of the bodies from the crash site would be " almost impossible " given that the wreckage of the aircraft was on fire for about two hours . The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister , Elmar Mammadyarov , said the crash site was very difficult to access not only because of the presence of the Taliban in the region , but also because of the terrain . The bodies of the crew were found on ; all nine people aboard the aircraft perished . The list of victims is as follows : Possible Taliban involvement . Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told an Iranian news agency that the aircraft had been shot down by Taliban rebels who believed the aircraft was carrying a shipment of weapons , but local governor Abdulhalim Mujaddidi denied the Taliban was involved . Despite assurances from a British major serving as spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force that no rebel activity was taking place in that area at the time of the crash , several attempts to reach the crash site were repelled by gunfire . Dashgin Shikarova , Azerbaijani ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan , considered that reports indicating technical problems with the 4K - AZ55 were not true . His opinion is that the Taliban shot the aircraft down .