Destructive crash kills all passengers, crew members in Pakistani flight to Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - In a tragic incident, a Pakistan International Airlines plane with 48 people onboard crashed in a mountainous area near Havelian in Abbottabad district.

The plane departed from Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, around 3:30 pm local time and was expected to land at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport, a regular passenger route, at around 4:40 pm

Local media in Pakistan showed images from the crash site, while Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said that the twin-engine plane, ATR-42 PK-661 had disintegrated and caught fire in the hill side, near the garrison town of Abbottabad.

Authorities said that it was likely that none of the 48 people onboard survived. 

Further, Bilal Ahmad Faizi, spokesman for the provincial emergency rescue service said, “The crash site is in a mountainous area, the terrain is tough. Rescue workers had to hike to the crash site with first-aid kits and emergency lights. They also took fire extinguishers with them, because the wreckage was on fire and it had to be cooled down.”

According to the civilian and military rescue teams, with 500 troops, that rushed to the spot - 40 charred bodies had been recovered from the crash site. 

Pakistan’s national carrier said in a statement that the pilot had made a mayday call before the crash and that nine women and two infants too were amongst the passengers onboard, along with two air hostesses and three pilots.

Experts said that a mayday call is made in a catastrophic situation such as both engines failing, or loss of control of the aircraft.

The carrier added in its statement that renowned Pakistani pop star-turned-preacher, and one of Pakistan’s most well-known personalities, the frontman of Vital Signs, an iconic pop band in the late 1980s and early 1990s - Junaid Jamshed and his wife were onboard the flight, along with some foreign citizens, including two Austrians and one Chinese. 

Even though the reason for the crash is not known yet, authorities are said to have launched a probe and weather is said to be one of the possible reasons being examined. However, Pakistani pilots said that weather, that impedes visibility, can often make flying difficult in Pakistan’s mountainous north, but the weather was clear on Wednesday around the crash site.

Javed Khan, a retired PIA pilot was quoted as saying that the plane was “way off course” for a flight between Chitral and Islamabad, considering the area in Havelian, where the plane went down.

Khan said technical fault could be the most likely cause.

No names of passengers or crew members have been revealed so far.