Pakistan jet crashes with nearly 100 people aboard
Plane hits residential area, kills dozens
A domestic Pakistan International Airlines flight with at least 98 people on board crashed Friday shortly after 2 p.m. local time near its destination in the southern port city of Karachi, Abdul Sattar Kokhar, a spokesman for the country’s civil aviation authority, told The Associated Press.
The authority said the plane carried 91 passengers and a crew of seven.
At least 57 bodies were recovered, health department officials said, and PIA chairman Arshad Malik said finding all the dead could take two to three days. Two deceased passengers have already been identified by their DNA and returned to family members, said Meeran Yousaf, a Health Department spokesman for Sindh Province.
At least two people aboard survived, according to the Sindh provincial health department. And three additional people on the ground were injured.
Arshad Malik confirmed that one of the survivors was Zafar Masud, the head of the Bank of Punjab, whom local TV stations said was seen being carried on a stretcher.
The Pakistan International Airlines jet, an Airbus A320, plowed into and destroyed at least five houses in a poor and heavily congested residential area on the edge of the airport, known as Model Colony.
Major Gen. Babar Iftikhar, the chief media officer for Pakistan’s Armed Forces, said in a tweet that the army’s chief of staff had volunteered to assist the civil administration’s rescue efforts.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was “shocked & saddened” by the crash in a statement posted to Twitter Friday.
“Immediate inquiry will be instituted. Prayers & condolences go to families of the deceased,” the statement continued.
Science Minister Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry said this year has been a “catastrophe – just survival is so difficult,” with the pandemic and now the plane crash.
Most of the passengers were heading home to celebrate the Eid-al Fitr holiday, he said.
“What is most unfortunate and sad is whole families have died, whole families who were traveling together for the Eid holiday,” he said in a telephone interview in the capital of Islamabad.
Malik said the crash will be investigated, adding that the aircraft was in good working order.
Witnesses said the plane appeared to attempt to land two or three times before crashing in a residential area near Jinnah International Airport, also known as Karachi Airport.
A transmission of the pilot’s final exchange with air traffic control, posted on the website LiveATC.net, indicated he had failed to land and was circling around to make another attempt.
“We are proceeding direct, sir – we have lost engine,” a pilot said.
“Confirm your attempt on belly,” the air traffic controller said, offering a runway.
“Sir – mayday, mayday, mayday, mayday Pakistan 8303,” the pilot said before the transmission ended.
USA TODAY reached out to Pakistan International Airlines and to the Aviation Division of the Government of Pakistan for comment on the crash.
Airbus did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment on the crash.
Airworthiness documents showed the plane last received a government check on Nov. 1, 2019. PIA’s chief engineer signed a separate certificate on April 28 saying all maintenance had been conducted on the plane and that “the aircraft is fully airworthy and meets all the safety” standards.
Pakistan resumed domestic flights earlier this week ahead of the Eid-al Fitr holiday marking the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Pakistan had been in a countrywide lockdown since mid-March.