A Pakistani passenger jet slammed into a forested ridge outside Islamabad on Wednesday, killing all 152 people aboard in what is believed to be the worst commercial aviation disaster in Pakistan’s history.
The plane, which belonged to Air Blue, a private Pakistani airline, was on its way from Karachi to the Pakistani capital and had been flying through heavy fog and rain when it crashed at about 9:45 a.m. local time in the Margalla Hills region just outside Islamabad, authorities said. Pervaiz George, spokesman for the Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority, said there were 146 passengers and six crew members aboard.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said two American citizens were among the dead, the Associated Press reported.
Television footage of the crash site showed smoke billowing upward from twisted shards of fuselage scattered amid dense underbrush. While rescue helicopters hovered overhead, dozens of emergency workers clambered up the ridge’s steep slopes to get to the site. Much of the wreckage, scattered over a 400-meter area, was found in a deep ravine that was difficult for rescue personnel to reach.
Authorities said at least 100 bodies had been recovered as of Wednesday afternoon. The plane’s black box was also found and turned over to the Pakistan air force for analysis.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the plane, an Airbus 321, was at 2,600 feet and preparing to land at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport when air traffic controllers directed the pilot to change his approach and land on a different runway. The pilot veered off to make a different approach, but then made a sudden ascent to 3,000 feet, Malik said. Malik called the abrupt change in altitude “an unaccounted for factor.”
George said the pilot’s last contact with air traffic controllers came two minutes before the plane crashed, and that the pilot did not give any indication that there was a problem on the plane.
Authorities said the Airbus 321 airliner that crashed was no older than 10 years. Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for Air Blue, said there were no known technical problems associated with the plane. “The aircraft was absolutely serviceable,” Ahmed said.
There have been no previous crashes of the Airbus 321 model, a medium-range commercial airliner that has been in service since 1994. At least 606 Airbus 321 jets have been delivered since 1994.
Air Blue is a Karachi-based domestic airline that also flies to United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom. It began service in 2004.
Pakistan’s last major aviation disaster occurred in 2006, when a Pakistan International Airlines passenger aircraft crashed into a wheat field near the central city of Multan. All 45 people aboard were killed.
