Peshawar: There are no survivors after a plane carrying 47 people crashed into a mountain in northern Pakistan, the airline's chairman says, as recovery operations continued late into the night at the remote crash site.
The military said 40 bodies had been recovered following the accident on Wednesday afternoon, local time, and rescue efforts involved about 500 soldiers, doctors and paramedics.
More World News Videos
At least 36 dead in Pakistan plane crash
A plane carrying about 40 passengers and crew has crashed on a mountain slope in northern Pakistan, witnesses say there are unlikely to be any survivors.
The bodies were shifted to the Ayub Medical Centre in nearby Abbottabad, about 20km away.
"There are no survivors, no one has survived," said Muhammad Azam Saigol, the chairman for Pakistan International Airlines.
The PIA-operated flight PK661 crashed en route from Chitral to the capital, Islamabad.
A senior government official in Peshawar said three foreigners - one Australian, one Chinese and one Korean - were among the passengers. But in a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said information received from Pakistan International Airlines did not suggest any Australians were involved in the incident.Â
"The Australian High Commission in Islamabad is liaising with local authorities to confirm this," the statement said.
"All of the bodies are burnt beyond recognition. The debris is scattered," said Taj Muhammad Khan, a Pakistani government official based in the Havelian region, who attended the site.
![Pakistani volunteers move remains of plane crash victims to a mortuary at a hospital, in Abbottabad.](/web/20161208103939im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/d/7/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6cg1.png/1481160515963.jpg)
The airline said the plane crashed in the Havelian area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, about 40km north of the capital. 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.
![Pop star turned cleric Junaid Jamshed was on the plane that crashed in Pakistan.](/web/20161208103939im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/c/x/m/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gt6cg1.png/1481160515963.jpg)
He said a full investigation of the crash, involving international agencies, would be conducted.
Khan 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.
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.
A local trader at the site of the crash said the fire was still burning nearly two hours after the crash.
Junaid Jamshed, a well-known Pakistani pop star turned proselytising Muslim cleric, was on board the crashed aircraft, according to a PIA official in Chitral. Jamshed, a singer in one of Pakistan's first major rock bands in the 1990s, abandoned his singing career to join the Tablighi Jamaat group, which travels across Pakistan and abroad preaching about Islam.
The airline said two Austrian citizens and one Chinese citizen, all men, had been on board. The flight manifest showed three people on board with foreign names.
The Austrian foreign minister's spokesman later confirmed two Austrians had been killed in the crash.
Local newspaper The Express Tribune posted photographs of what it said was the fiery crash site.
The photographs showed flames covering a blackened hill, with debris including the plane's fuselage spread across the mountainside.
Pakistani politician and former cricketer Imran Khan said he was "shocked and saddened" by the crash.
"May Allah give the families of the deceased courage to bear their loss," he wrote.
The only images released of crashed PIA aircraft. Follow our live updates here: https://t.co/Vg413ty2Kn pic.twitter.com/p0APBY8AOj
— The Express Tribune (@etribune) December 7, 2016
"They are removing body parts," Nasim Gohar told Geo TV.
The military said it had sent in troops and helicopters.
Shocked & saddened by the tragic PIA plane crash near HavelIan. May Allah give the families of the deceased courage to bear their loss.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 7, 2016
A PIA spokesman said the dual turboprop engine plane lost contact with the CAA at about 4.30 pm.
"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.
PIA has also suffered major disasters in the past.
Reuters
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20161208103939im_/https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=34.71048,73.10413&zoom=6&size=500x370&maptype=roadmap&markers=color:green|35.85229,71.78711&markers=icon:http://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/ms2/micons/purple-pushpin.png|34.04658,73.14381&markers=color:yellow|33.72939,73.09315&sensor=false)