NTSB reports on Afghan cargo crash that killed all 7 aboard

DETROIT (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board has released an 86-page report on a cargo plane’s 2013 crash in Afghanistan that killed six crew members from Michigan and one from Kentucky.

The report (http://1.usa.gov/1DCk65A ) issued Tuesday doesn’t cite a crash cause but talks about the possibility that shifting by heavily armored military vehicles in the hold of the Boeing 747-400 may have been a factor.

The Dubai-bound plane operated by National Air Cargo crashed just after takeoff from Bagram Air Base on April 29, 2013.

The plane was carrying 200 tons of cargo, including five Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles weighing 12 to 18 tons each. It picked them up at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, and refueled at Bagram.

The report says it was the airlines’ first experience carrying 18-ton MRAPs.