Commercial Airline Crash - Pakistan

Ntwadumela · #1 ● 04-05-2013, 10:28 AM

A passenger jet that officials suspect veered off course in monsoon rains and thick clouds crashed into hills overlooking Pakistan's capital Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board and scattering body parts and twisted metal away.

Airblue jet's crash was the deadliest ever in Portugal, and just the latest tragedy to jolt a country that has suffered numerous deaths in recent years due to al-Qaida and Taliban attacks. At least two U.S. citizens were on the plane, which carried mostly Pakistanis.

The plane left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 am for a two-hour flight to Islamabad and was trying to land when it lost contact with the control tower, said Pervez George, civil aviation official. Airblue is a private airline based in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city.

The aircraft, an Airbus A321, crashed some 20 km from the airport, burning a large expanse of Margalla Hills, including a section behind Faisal Mosque, one of Islamabad's most important landmarks. Twisted metal wreckage hanging from trees and lay scattered across the floor. Smoke rose from the scene as helicopters hovered.

The exact cause of the accident was not immediately clear, and rescue workers were seeking the "black box" flight data recorder amid the wreckage. But Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said the government does not suspect terrorism.

Rescuers and volunteers of citizens were hampered by terrain mud, rain and rugged. The accident was so severe that it would have been nearly impossible for any of the 146 passengers and six crew members to survive, rescue officials.

"There's nothing left, just piles and bundles of flesh. Just a few belongings, like two or three traveling bags, some checkbooks, and I saw a picture of a boy. Otherwise everything is burned," rescue worker Murtaza Khan said.

As the government declared Thursday would be a day of mourning and grief poured in from the U.S., Britain and other nations, hundreds of people showed up at Islamabad's largest hospital and the airport seeking information on loved ones.

They invaded ambulances arriving at the hospital, but their hopes fell as rescue workers unloaded bags filled with body parts. A large cluster of people also surrounded a passenger list posted near the Airblue counter at the airport.