The crash of an executive jet last week in northern Iraq was caused by bad weather, not hostile action, the German business owner who chartered the Cessna for the mission said Monday, according to DPA. All six people on the plane were killed when it crashed Thursday 35 kilometres north of Sulaymanyah during its landing approach to that city's airport. The burned-out wreckage of the Cessna Citation X was found Sunday. Franz Haslberger said an investigation established that the German plane had apparently gone down in a snowstorm. Haslberger, whose firm Hasit was developing business in northern Iraq, defended the two jet pilots, aged 69 and 74, who were among the dead. He said they were very experienced men and had flown in the Middle East several times in the past. Despite their age, they had passed regular health checks, he added in Munich. Two Hasit executives, a German national advising them on Iraq and an Iraqi were also killed. Hasit manufactures mortar used to bond bricks. The crash had no connection to the political or military situation in Iraq, Haslberger said. The bodies of the five Germans would be repatriated as soon as possible, with Iraqi authorities expected to release the remains on Tuesday.
