Troops reach Afghan crash site

KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO troops reached the wreckage of an Afghan airliner today, four days after it crashed into a snowy mountain peak, and they began the gruesome task of searching the site, where 104 people were believed to have died, an alliance spokesman said.

Clear skies allowed helicopters to drop a small team of medics, mountaineers, and explosives specialists near the site, 20 miles east of Kabul, this morning, the spokesman said. There was no immediate word on what they saw.

The Boeing 737-200, flown by Kam Air, Afghanistan's first post-Taliban private airline, vanished from radar screens Thursday afternoon as it approached Kabul airport in a snowstorm from the western city of Herat.

NATO helicopters spotted parts of the wreckage about 11,000 feet up Chaperi Mountain on Saturday, but heavy snow and low cloud coverage had prevented alliance and Afghan forces from reaching the site.

None of the 96 passengers and eight crew is believed to have survived.

Three New England women were among the passengers. Cristin "Cristi" Gadue, 26, a native of Burlington, Vt., Amy Lynn Niebling, 29, of Somerville, and Carmen Urdaneta, 32, of Brookline, worked for Cambridge-based Management Sciences for Health.

They were seeking to improve the country's public health system.