Pakistan plane crash: No survivors in PIA accident in country's mountainous north, airline chairman says
Updated
There were no survivors after a plane carrying 47 people crashed into a mountain in northern Pakistan, the airline's chairman said, as recovery operations continued late into the night at the remote crash site.
Key points:
- Images on local media showed a trail of wreckage on a mountain slope
- Authorities say they lost contact with the plane at 4:30pm local time
- Pakistani pop star Jinaid Jamshed was reportedly on the flight
The military said 40 bodies had been recovered and rescue efforts involved about 500 soldiers, doctors and paramedics. The bodies were shifted to the Ayub Medical Centre in nearby Abbottabad, about 20 kilometres away.
"There are no survivors, no one has survived," Muhammad Azam Saigol, the chairman for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), confirmed.
In a late night statement, PIA said the plane was carrying 47 people, including five crew members and 42 passengers. Earlier, the airline had said there were 48 people on board.
Junaid Jamshed, a well-known Pakistani pop star turned evangelical Muslim cleric, was among those feared dead.
Airline PIA said the captain of the flight had reported losing power in one engine minutes before its plane lost contact with the control tower en route to the capital.
The airline said the plane crashed at 4:42pm local time in the Havelian area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, about 40 kilometres north of Islamabad. Chitral, where the flight originated, is a popular tourist destination in Pakistan.
Saigol said the ATR turboprop aircraft had undergone regular maintenance and in October had passed an "A-check" maintenance certification, performed after every 500 flight hours.
He said a full investigation of the crash, involving international agencies, would be conducted.
"All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris are scattered," Government official Taj Muhammad Khan said.
Mr Khan, who was at the crash site, said witnesses told him "the aircraft has crashed in a mountainous area, and before it hit the ground it was on fire".
Pakistani television showed a trail of wreckage engulfed in flames on a mountain slope.
Irfan Elahi, the Government's aviation secretary, told media the plane suffered engine problems but it was too early to determine the cause of the accident.
'They are removing body parts'
The airline said two Austrian citizens and one Chinese citizen, all men, had been on board. The Austrian foreign minister's spokesman later confirmed two Austrians had been killed in the crash.
A local trader at the site of the crash said the fire was still burning nearly two hours after the crash.
"They are removing body parts," Nasim Gohar told Geo TV.
The military said it had sent in troops and helicopters.
"PIA is doing everything possible to help the families of passengers and crew members," the airline said in a statement.
Plane crashes are not uncommon in Pakistan and safety standards are often criticised. In recent years, media have reported on multiple near-misses as planes over-ran runways and engines caught fire.
In 2010, a passenger plane crashed in heavy rain near Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board. Two years later, a plane operated by a private Pakistani company, with 127 people on board, crashed near Islamabad. All on board were killed.
PIA has also suffered major disasters in the past.
In 1979 and 1992, PIA jets crashed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and in Kathmandu, killing 156 and 167 people, respectively.
In 2006, a PIA plane crashed near the central city of Multan, killing 45 people.
Reuters
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, air-and-space, accidents, pakistan, asia
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