Video of Bagram plane crash legitimate, U.S. official says

CNN Wire Service

American authorities have concluded that a widely seen video does show the U.S. civilian-operated cargo jet that crashed in Afghanistan last week, a U.S. government official said Monday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is being handled by Afghan authorities, did not give details on how U.S. authorities came to that conclusion.

The National Airlines jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, killing all seven people aboard, officials said. National Airlines specializes in moving freight for the military and businesses.

After the crash, the video of a plane crash surfaced, apparently captured by a dashboard camera inside a vehicle on the base. The approximately three-minute video shows what appears to be the National Airlines jet as it started its climb around 11:20 a.m. April 29.

About 12 seconds into the video, the Boeing 747-400 appears to stall, rolls from side to side, and drops. At 23 seconds, the plane crashes nose first into the ground off the side of the road, erupting into a ball of orange flame and black smoke.

National Air Cargo, the parent of National Airlines, said the flight had refueled at Bagram en route from Camp Bastion, a British military base in Afghanistan, to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

— CNN’s Tom Watkins contributed to this report.