imran666 Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 ISLAMABAD - Rescuers have found five survivors from the Pakistani airliner which crashed in Islamabad with over 150 aboard this evening. Airblue flight 202, a domestic passenger plane carrying 152 passengers and crew, crashed into the hills in Pakistan's capital. A Pakistani aviation official said the crash happened just as the plane was preparing to land. The cause of the Airblue crash was not immediately clear, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official. He said the plane was flying from Karachi to Islamabad and was trying to land during difficult weather. Airblue is private service based in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. Survivors a miracle "The plane was about to land at the Islamabad airport when it lost contact with the control tower, and later we learned that the plane had crashed," George said. Guards with the forestry service said they had found some wreckage and seen at least five dead bodies, said Imtiaz Inayat Ali, an official with Islamabad's Capital Development Authority. Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said at least five wounded passengers had been rescued. "This is a miracle as we had been briefed that there might not be any survivors," Amir Ahmed, the Islamabad's deputy commissioner said. Eyewitness account Saqlain Altaf told Pakistan's ARY news channel that he was on a family outing in the hills when he saw the plane looking unsteady in the air. "The plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down," he said, adding that he heard the crash. Army troops called in to help at crash scene Pakistani news channels showed what appeared to be wreckage of the plane as a helicopter hovered above the heavily forested hills to assess the situation. Fire was visible and smoke was blowing up from the scene. The army said it was sending special troops to the area to help out along with helicopters. Mohammed Usman, an official at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, said dozens of relatives of passengers gathered there were crying and desperate to get information about their loved ones. Pakistan air safety record under scrutiny Airblue could not immediately be reached for comment. Officials at first thought it was a small plane, but later revised that. George said 146 passengers were on the flight along with six crew members. The only previous recorded accident for Airblue, a carrier founded in 2003, was a tailstrike in May 2008 at Quetta airport by one of the airline's Airbus 321 jets. There were no casualties and damage was minimal, according to the US-based Aviation Safety Network. Airblue flies within Pakistan as well as internationally to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom. Other Pakistani airlines have come under international scrutiny due to safety concerns. In 2007, the European Union temporarily banned flights in its airspace of most of the aircraft operated by Pakistan's national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines, because of concerns over the age of the aircraft and poor maintenance. The bloc lifted the ban later that year after the airline took action to comply with safety standards. The last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a airliner F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines slammed into a wheat field on the outskirts of the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board. In August 1989, another PIA airliner, with 54 people onboard, went down in northern Pakistan on a domestic flight. The plane's wreckage was never found. In September 1992, a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a mountain in Nepal, killing all 167 people on board. Investigators found the plane was flying 1,500 feet lower than it reported as it approached the Katmandu airport. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10661904 really sad :sniffle: R.I.P for those who died
Pak_Fan_4_Eva Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 Inna lillah i wa inna ilaihi rajioun My heartfelt condolences to the relatives of the deceased. May Allah have mercy on them. Aameen!
Sachinism Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 damn thats a lot of people RIP Mass deaths is a daily occurrence nowadays :((
Rajiv Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 You can almost tell that in every 3-4 months, u wil hear abt a crash somewhere. AFAIK, Pak had a good record abt Plane crashes but you can't escape this bad luck Horrifying death
coffee_rules Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 Why this news in Political forum? Any sabotage involved ? Won't be surprised if it is..
Cricket_Guru Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 RIP to those who passed away. the driver was too old to me. 62
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