Pakistan plane crashes with 152 on board near Islamabad, 80 feared dead
A Pakistani passenger plane with 152 people on board crashed Wednesday in the Margalla hills near Islamabad, Pakistan capital, after it lost contact with the control room of Islamabad international airport, officials said.
Rescuers have recovered five bodies from the crash site, officials said. Also, three wounded survivors have been found. "This is a miracle as we had been briefed that there might not be any survivors," Amir Ahmed, Islamabad's deputy commissioner, told a news channel.
According to reports, the plane is believed to be an Airbus A321 with 146 passengers and six crew members on board. The plane is said to have left Karachi at 0750 (0350 GMT). Stating that the cause of the crash was not immediately clear, Pervez George, a civil aviation official, said, "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.”
Pakistan army has been deployed to aid the rescue operations, while military helicopters were hovering over the site of the crash. Relatives of the passengers gathered in large numbers at the Islamabad airport seeking information of their loved ones, while a state of emergency was declared in Islamabad hospitals. "We are gathering information. We have no more details," said Mubarik Shah, a spokesman for the state-run Civil Aviation Authority.
