Shocking new footage has surfaced that appears to show a 747-400 cargo plane crashing at Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield. The crash reportedly left all seven Americans aboard the plane dead.
The Taliban took responsibility for the crash shortly after it occurred yesterday, but NATO told the Associated Press that these claims were false.
One army spokesperson said the crash occurred due to low altitude after takeoff. The plane, run by Florida-based National Airlines, a subsidiary of National Air Cargo, was reportedly carrying vehicles and other cargo and was bound for Dubai.
We've embedded the footage below, which appears to have been caught by a dash-cam. It seems the video was first uploaded to LiveLeak earlier this morning, and later re-uploaded to YouTube.
Warning: Some viewers may find the video upsetting:
We talked to aviation expert and retired United Airlines captain Ross Aimer, who hesitated to speculate on the cause of the crash but said the plane might have stalled after taking off at too sharp an angle.
"The very high angle of the airplane, … is a definite no-no," Aimer said. "There's no way they could control that. Once you get into that, it stalls."
Once the plane stalls, it stops flying and "drops like a rock," he said.
Another possibility is a cargo shift.
"Something they were carrying might have been heavy and not tied down properly and shifted all the way to the back of the airplane," Aimer said.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued a press release that says a team will investigate the crash.
"I don't know the answers and we won't until they get the black boxes," Aimer said.
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