An Afghan private airliner that was scheduled to land in the capital is still unaccounted for almost 18 hours later, an airliner official said Friday morning.

A representative from Kam Air who only gave his last name as Aziz, told Xinhua that the Boeing 737 is still missing after an overnight effort to locate it. "Earlier report that the plane has landed is no accurate," he said.

Another official who worked with the Kam Air told Xinhua this morning that the plane has landed safely in Peshawar airport and 36 of passengers on board will be flown to Kabul if weather permits. He promised to provide more detais later.

According to Aziz, the airplane that has landed in Herat after a flight mission from Kabul in the morning, took off in Herat at 2:30 p.m. and should reach its destination one hour later. At 3:10 p.m., the pilot radioed the air controller about the weather condition and asked for landing. Then, it lost contact. "I don't know why it did not return back to Herat," Aziz remarked.

The distraught airplane carried 96 passengers and eight crew members. The airline has contacted all neighboring countries as well as ISAF and US-led coalition for help.

The Peshawar airport authorities said later Thursday two airliners had landed in the airport, but later denied the information. Peshawar is the nearest airport that the Kam Air airplane should land in.

According to Aziz, the airplane was bought recently, and all the pilots and air stewardesses were foreigners.

Kam Air is a private airliner that started operation in November 2003. It has four Boeing 737s and some Russian-made airplanes. It is based in northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and has its maintenance base in Dubai. Except two Afghan air stewardesses, all of its crew were foreigners. A Russian airline also has a share in the venture.

Source: Xinhua