Afghan refugee in US training flight crash that killed 3 ignored instructor’s advice

A former Afghan Air Force pilot training for a commercial license in Oregon state of the United States ignored his flight instructor’s advice to not return to a small airport because of low visibility, according to a preliminary federal report of the accident released Friday.

All three men killed in the accident on Dec. 16 were former Afghan pilots who fought with the American military.

The pilot, Mohammad Hussain Musawi, 35, and the two passengers, Mohammad Bashir Safdari, 35, and Ali Jan Ferdawsi, 29, died in the crash near Independence, a small city in the Willamette Valley about 19 kilometers southwest of Salem.

The National Transportation Safety Board´s report said an examination of the airframe and the engine of the Cessna 172G airplane revealed no mechanical malfunctions or failures, the Associated Press reported.

The plane´s owner allowed the pilot to use the Cessna to get his private pilot’s certificate and to obtain his instrument rating and commercial pilot’s certificate, the report said.

The plane likely first hit an 80-foot utility pole, located about 18 meters southeast of the wreckage.

NTSB preliminary reports don’t assign a cause to airplane crashes, but more information is usually contained in final reports released months later.

More than 1,400 Afghans have resettled as refugees in Oregon since 2021, according to the state’s department of human services.