Pak plane crashes in Karachi, over 40 killed
KARACHI: At least 45 people were killed when a Pakistan International Airlines plane with 99 people on board crashed into a densely populated residential area near the Jinnah International Airport here on Friday, officials said, days after the COVID-19-induced travel restrictions were lifted.
Flight PK-8303 from Lahore was about to land in Karachi when it crashed at the Jinnah Garden area near Model Colony in Malir, just a minute before its landing, they said.The PIA Airbus A320 carrying 91 passengers and eight crew members has crashed landed into the Jinnah housing society located near the airport, a spokesperson of the national carrier said. Faisal Edhi of the Edhi welfare trust told reporters that so far 45 bodies have been recovered.
Sindh Health Minister Azra Pechuho aid there are three survivors including President of the Bank of Punjab Zafar Masood. He called up his mother to inform her of his well-being. Edhi said that around 25 to 30 residents whose houses were damaged by the plane have also been taken to the hospital, mostly with burn wounds.
KARACHI: At least two passengers survived but many others were feared dead as a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus jet with 99 people on board crashed into residential buildings in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Friday afternoon while approaching the airport.
Seemin Jamali, executive director at the nearby Jinnah Hospital, said 17 dead bodies and six wounded people had been brought in. There were no estimates of casualties on the ground. “The aeroplane first hit a mobile tower and crashed over houses,” witness Shakeel Ahmed said near the site, a few kilometres short of the airport.
The crash happened on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid, when Pakistanis traditionally travel to visit relatives. The plane was on its second attempt to land after cancelling a previous one in a routine manoeuvre known as a go-around, one-person familiar with the investigation said. The pilot told air traffic controllers he had lost power from both engines, according to a recording posted on liveatc.net, a widely respected aviation monitoring website.
“We are returning back, sir, we have lost engines,” a man was heard saying in a recording released by the website. The controller freed up both the airport’s runways but moments later the man called “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”. There was no further communication from the plane, according to the tape, which could not immediately be authenticated. “The last we heard from the pilot was that he has some technical problem,” said the state carrier’s spokesman, Abdullah H Khan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed shock over the plane crash and assured that an immediate inquiry will be instituted.
“Shocked and saddened by the PIA crash. Am in touch with PIA CEO Arshad Malik, who has left for Karachi and with the rescue and relief teams on ground as this is the priority right now. Immediate inquiry will be instituted. Prayers and condolences go to families of the deceased,” he tweeted.