Dozens killed as jet crashes in Pakistan
AN AIRLINER carrying 98 people has crashed in a crowded neighbourhood near the airport in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi after an apparent engine failure during landing.
Officials said there were at least two survivors from the plane, and it was unknown how many people on the ground were hurt, with at least five houses destroyed.
The pilot of Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 was heard transmitting a mayday to the tower shortly before the crash of the Airbus A320, which was flying from Lahore to Karachi.
Video on social media appeared to show the jet flying low over a residential area with flames shooting from one of its engines.
The plane came to rest between houses smashed by its wings in a narrow alley in the poor and congested residential area known as Model Colony. Police in protective masks struggled to clear away crowds amid the smoke and dust so that ambulances and fire engines could reach the site.
Two passengers survived, said Meeran Yousaf, Sindh provincial Health Department spokeswoman, revising an earlier statement that three had survived.
At least three people on the ground were injured.
Pakistan had resumed domestic flights earlier this week ahead of the Eid-al Fitr holiday marking the end of the Islamic fasting month of
Ramadan. Pakistan has been in a countrywide lockdown since midmarch because of coronavirus, and the airline has been using social distancing guidelines on its flights by leaving every other seat vacant.
Southern Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, is the epicentre of the virus infections in Pakistan. The province has nearly 20,000 of the country’s more than 50,000 cases.
Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar initially said all aboard died, but two civil aviation officials later said at least two people survived.
Local TV stations reported that three people sitting in the front row of the aircraft survived and showed video of a man on a stretcher they identified as Zafar Masood, head of the Bank of Punjab.
They reported that at least 11 bodies were recovered from the crash site.
Pakistan’s civil aviation authority said the plane was carrying 91 passengers and a crew of seven.
A transmission of the pilot’s final exchange with air traffic control indicated he had failed to land and was circling to make another attempt.
In one of the radio communications, at least one exchange from the flight sounded like a warning alarm was going off in the cockpit.
Karachi resident Abdul Rahman said he saw the jet circle at least three times, appearing to try to land before it crashed.