Islamabad: In the second major air crash in four days, a chartered plane carrying eight people, including Afghanistan's Mines and Industries Minister Juma Mohammad Mohammadi and four Dutch nationals, hurtled into the Arabian Sea shortly after takeoff from Karachi on February 24, killing all on board, officials said.

The Cessna aircraft, which was on a flight to Jazak near the Iranian border with Baluchistan, went down into the sea near Cape Mount off the coast of Karachi, they said.

The Navy has located the part of the wreckage of the plane, which belonged to local non-governmental organisation (NGO) Edhi Foundation and was hired by a mining firm.

The cause of the crash was not yet known but officials did not rule out sabotage.

The plane was chartered for going to a site in connection with the establishment of the $ 3.5 billion gas pipeline project from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan into Pakistan. The three countries have decided to invite India to join the venture.

Mohammadi, accompanied by his advisor Ahmeed Ratib Alumi and Afghan Foreign Ministry official Mohammad Amin Sadiq, had been in Pakistan since last week for the three- nation summit on the proposed gas pipeline.

Among the dead were beside the Afghan Minister, two Afghan officials. Earlier reports said Pakistani Foreign Ministry official Mohammad Farhad Ahmed and a Chinese business executive were also in the plane.

This was the second plane crash in Pakistan in four days. On February 21, a Pakistani military plane carrying the chief of Pakistan's Air Force, air marshal Mushaf Ali Mir along with 16 others crashed in Kohat in North West Frontier Province.

PTI