PLUCKED OUT ALIVE

PIA plane crashes into Karachi locality near airport

A Pakistan International Airlines plane with more than 100 people on board crashed in a densely populated residential area in Karachi near the city's Jinnah International Airport on Friday.

The Airbus was coming from Lahore, a journey which usually takes 90 minutes.

The Bank of Punjab president and two other passengers were brought out alive from the smoking wreckage of the A320. He has sustained fractures on his hip and collar bones but does not have any burn and scratch marks on his body.

akistani media said the three passengers in the front row of the aircraft had survived.

There was no definite information on the total number of casualties.

The pilot told air traffic control that he had lost both his engines and a recording has emerged of the captain making a final ‘Mayday’ (distress) call before the crash.

Witnesses said the flight had made three failed attempts to land before ploughing into the Model Town residential area of Karachi on a fourth landing attempt.

Videos uploaded on social media show the plane's final moments as it hurtled downwards at alarming speed amid the screams of terrified residents. Witnesses said the plane was so low they felt the walls of their houses quiver.

‘‘The last we heard from the pilot was that he has some technical problem,’’ a PIA spokesman revealed. ‘‘He was told from the final approach that both the runways were ready where he can land, but the pilot decided that he wanted to do (a) go-round... It is a ver y tragic incident.’’ As it called off an earlier attempt to land and tried for a second time, a controller radioed the pilot and told him he appeared to be turning lef t, suggesting he was off-course.

‘‘We are returning back, sir, we have lost both engines,’’ the pilot told the controller who asked him to land on either of the airport's two runways. Twelve seconds later the pilot cried ‘‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!’’ There was no further communication.

TV footage showed rescue crews combing through debris strewn across the streets of Model Town, where a number of houses were destroyed. "The plane first hit a mobile tower and then crashed over houses," witness Shakeel Ahmed told news agency Reuters near the site, just a few kilometres short of the airport. (This report is a media compilation).