Islamabad – An aircraft carrying 47 people to the Pakistani capital Islamabad from a tourist resort near the Afghan border crashed on Wednesday, killing everyone on board, officials said.
The small ATR-42 plane was halfway through a 70-minute flight from the town of Chitral when it came down, said Daniyal Gilani, spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines.
It crashed in the town of Hawalian, some 75 kilometres north of the capital, at 4:42 pm (1142 GMT), Gilani said.
At least 42 passengers, five crew members were on board the flight, which was designated with the number PK66, he added.
There were no survivors and the charred bodies were being shifted to a local hospital for DNA testing to identify them, the Civil Aviation Authority announced hours later.
The victims include 31 men, nine women and two infants. Three foreign nationals – two from Austria and one from China – were among the dead, the airline said.
The aircraft lost contact with the control tower moments before it crashed and the pilot sent a call for help, the spokesman added.
“An inquiry has been ordered into the incident,” Gilani said.
Aviation Secretary Muhammad Irfan Elahi said that the cause of the crash is not yet known. The search is still on for the aeroplane’s black box.
Dead bodies are being taken to the Ayyub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad, about 20 kilometres from the crash site, said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Secretary Shakil Qadir Khan.
He said that the biometric team of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had been directed to go to the hospital to help with the identification of the dead.
Junaid Jamshed, a major pop star from the 1980s who has since become an Islamic preacher, and his wife were among the passengers.
Jamshed was on a preaching mission for the last 10 days in Chitral, his family said.
Hawalian resident Sabookh Syed shared photographs of huge flames coming out of the wreckage on a mountain slope on his Facebook page.
The ISPR, the military’s media wing, reported that 36 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage.
The Pakistani military mobilized troops from the nearest cantonment to take part in rescue operation.
At least 500 troops, including doctors and paramedics, along with the necessary vehicles and ambulances, are taking part in the operation, the ISPR said.
Chitral is located in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is popular with tourists both for its natural beauty and its history, which includes a link to Alexander the Great.
ATR planes are used for short flights from hilly areas to Islamabad and other cities.
In 2012, all 127 people on board a flight by Bhoja Air, a small private airline, travelling from Karachi to Islamabad were killed when the plane crashed in the approach area.
In 2010, in Pakistan’s worst ever air disaster, an Airblue Airbus crashed before landing in Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board.
-dpa
