 The plane crashed at 0700 UTC, about away from Balad Air Base, the main hub of US military logistics in Iraq, while attempting to land.An anonymous ministry official told the Associated Press that the pilot had already aborted one landing attempt due to poor weather conditions.Although the aircraft was said to have crashed due to fog, one eyewitness, a relative of one of the deceased, said that he watched a missile strike the right hand side of the fuselage while standing just 300–400 meters (1000–1300 ft) from where the aircraft went down.