On 19 March 1998, a Boeing 727 passenger jet operated by Ariana Afghan Airlines crashed on approach into Kabul, Afghanistan, killing all 45 people aboard.

[6] According to a November 2001 Los Angeles Times story, this flight may have been one of several involved in a series of smuggling runs carrying arms, money, drugs and Islamist militants between Sharjah, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Passengers on these flights reportedly included militants from both the al-Qaeda and Taliban movements, the latter of which ruled most of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, while also harboring Osama bin Laden.

Being the regime that controlled most of Ariana's fleet and assets, as well as the airports in Kandahar and Kabul, the Taliban facilitated the flights, helping to provide fake crew and employee IDs to the militants.

The story reports on an August 1996 incident, in which Ahmad Shah Massoud's militia stopped an Ariana 727 that was about to depart from Jalalabad Airport full of opium hidden in a fake timber cargo.