ISLAMABAD, February 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A visiting Afghan minister and four members of his delegation were confirmed dead on Monday, February 24, when a private chartered small jet crashed in the sea near Karachi.

"I can confirm the unfortunate incident of the plane crash in which Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, the ministry's planning director Mohammad Amin Sadiq, and his two advisers were killed," presidential spokesman Mohammad Azam Hamraz told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Pakistani officials say none of the eight people on board the Cessna 402-B plane appeared to have survived the crash of the plane, which disappeared from radar screens at 9:05 am (0405 GMT).

The plane's wreckage was located in the ocean 56 kilometers (30 miles) west of the main southern Pakistan city of Karachi, the country's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.

Hamraz said the deaths would dominate the agenda at a weekly meeting of the Afghan cabinet and further decisions and official statements were expected later Monday.

A Chinese chief executive of a foreign mining company and two Pakistani members of the crew were also identified among the dead as all eight men on board were confirmed dead by the foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan.

It is the second air disaster in a week’s time in Pakistan. Pakistan’s chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir and 16 other people were killed in an air crash on Thursday, October 20.

The Afghan minister had concluded an official visit to Pakistan at the weekend. He stayed in the country behind his original schedule to discuss mining prospects with a Chinese company which showed interest in Afghanistan. Along with the chief executive of that company, the Afghan minister and four members of his delegation were to visit a mining project run by the same company in Baluchistan province of Pakistan.

Among the eight dead was Afghanistan's Mines and Industries Minister, Juma Mohammed Mohammedi, and Sun Changshen, the Pakistan representative of the China Metallurgical Construction Co.

"It is a tragic incident. The government of Pakistan has expressed sympathies with the government and the people of Afghanistan," said Aziz Ahmed Khan, Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman.

Causes of the accident are still not known but the navigation staff reported a clear sky when the Cessna 402 took off from Karachi 8:00 am local time.

The aircraft, which was owned by Pakistan's largest private welfare organization, Edhi Trust, received its last air worthiness certificate in November 2002, according to Trust officials.