Airblue plane crashes in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: An Airblue passenger plane carrying at least 152 passengers and crew crashed in Margalla Hills in Islamabad on Wednesday morning.

The plane was coming from Turkey to Islamabad via Karachi. The plane had lost contact with the control tower during the crash which occurred amid thick fog and heavy rainfall in Islamabad.

3:54pm

No survivors in the plane crash says Rehman Malik.

3:35pm

Bad weather and wind conditions did not allow the plane to land by the regular route. Qamar Zaman Kaira says we should wait for inquiry and not rely on speculations. Kaira calls for patience.

The plane had its landing gear down at the time of the crash according to the Spokesman of the CAA.

3:21pm

According to AFP, rescue workers have recovered the bodies of more than 100 people.

One of the youth parliamentarians going to attend the Youth Parliament session is also reported dead. No survivors have been brought to the hospitals and there no survivors at the crash site according to Express 24/7 reporter Sabur Ali Syed.

3:05pm

Information desks have been set up at Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi airports and families of the victims can contact Crisis Management Cell at 051-9211223-4.

Pakistan Army has set up rescue camps near the crash site

2:52pm

Meekal Ahmed, Columnist for The Express Tribune writes:

May I try and put some perspective on this for those above who don’t seem to know much about aviation but are writing anyway:

If you are using runway 12 as it seems (the Murree road side) there is no ILS. The ILS is on runway 30 (the opposite side). So the procedure (which I never thought was safe) is you fly the ILS to 30 and then you break off and turn right and fly parallel to the Margalla hills and then turn back in and land on 12. It’s not a circle but more of a race-track pattern.

You may ask why not have the aircraft turn left rather than right towards the Margalla Hills. The reason is that on the left of runway 30 is Dhamial Air Base, GHQ and so on and as far as I remember that is all so-called “Restricted” airspace. You cannot fly over it.

This is CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) not as stated above.

Final point, when you are flying parallel to the Margalla Hills, you are required to keep the airport on your left in sight. So I can visualize the captain in the left seat looking left. Maybe the F/O was flying and craning his neck too. They just seem to have drifted into the Margalla Hills — perhaps because of high winds. They lost what is called “Situational Awareness”. Basically they did not know where they were.

May those who perished rest in eternal peace.

2:45pm

Rescue workers have recovered the remains of more than 80 people and the remains are being airlifted, a senior police official told AFP.

2:42pm

Eyewitness accounts:

“I saw a big ball of smoke and fire everywhere with big pieces of aircraft rolling down the hill,” said police official Haji Taj Gul.

“The plane was flying very low. Then we heard a loud noise,” Wajih-ur Rehman, a resident of E-7 told AFP.

“The plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down,” Saqlain Altaf, an Islamabad resident who was on a family outing in the Margalla Hills, told ARY News

“I saw it pass over my house and then there was a very loud explosion” – Anjum Rahman, Express 24/7

2:38pm

According to sources, six university students were on-board the Airblue flight to attend a youth parliament session in Islamabad.

2:32pm

Rescue officials confirm that the death toll now stands at 45. Navy Commander Raja Jamil who is heading rescue efforts added that there are no survivors from the site area his team has covered. He said weather conditions are hampering rescue efforts via helicopter.

2:19pm

One body reaches PIMs Hospital. Ambulance hampered from entering hospital premises due to crowds of people on location.

Plane’s wreckage spread over 400 metres across the Margalla Hills.

2:15pm

Express 24/7 reporter Sabur Ali Syed reports from the crash site:

20 dead bodies confirmed, including two women and a child not more than 15 years old.

Express team reached the crash site on foot. Citizens are complaining that the helicopter rescue service has not been efficient.

Smoke is still rising from the crash site.

01:55pm

Airblue Chairperson says no flight has been delayed and Airblue is refunding passengers who wish to cancel their reservations.

Rehman Malik says a five member CAA team will be investigating the cause behind the crash.

01:47pm

Interior Minister Rehman Malik says:

The bodies of the victims will be taken to the hospital. Some may need identification. The plane was redirected to land from the Pindi Muree road. It came down to 2600 and went back to 3000. Only five survivors have been confirmed so far. Twelve passengers had failed to show up for the flight.

01:38pm

PAF is working on decoding the black box. Raheel Ahmed, GM of Airblue says the Airblue plane that crashed was relatively new and was only eight to 10 years old.

01:32pm

A list of past plane crashes by Pakistani airlines is available here: Plane crash history with death toll.

The list indicates that in most past cases of plane crashes there are very few survivors.

Airblue officials say the plane had no technical faults.

01:25pm

Reports indicate that the pilot was aged 65.

Chairman NDMA says the plane hit a vertical 90 degree cliff head on which made the rescue operations very difficult. He further said it will take two days to remove the dead bodies and wreckage. Rescue efforts have been hampered by the 90 degree angle of the cliff.

01:13pm

Chairman CDA, Imtiaz Inayat says around five to six people have been rescued. He says rescue operation are in full swing and the authorities have enough equipment for the rescue operations.

01:08pm

Express 24/7 host Anjum Rehman and an eyewitness says that the plane was flying very low and there was no fire in the fuel tank three minutes before the crash. Conflicting reports have been received of a fire in the fuel tank of the airplane.
No surviors or bodies have so far reached the hospitals.

01:02pm

Seven helicopters are carrying out rescue operations at the site.

12:45pm

The CAA has said the scheduled Flight was ABQ-202, KHI-ISB, reportedly an Airbus A321. The name of the captain of the aircraft is stated as Pervez Iqbal Choudhry.

12:32pm

Express 24/7 reporter Sabur Ali Syed reports:

The crash site is a national park, and it is presumed that the plane crashed into a steep ridge in the hills.

Eyewitnesses say the plane was flying at an extremely low altitude. They say they have never seen a plane flying on this particular route.

GM Marketing, Airblue Raheel Ahmed says the families of those on the Airblue flight will be transported to the capital via Airblue.

12:28pm

Four dead bodies have been identified as males and four females. According to Rescure 1122 the survivors and bodies are on their way

Express 24/7 reporter Sabur Ali Syed reports:

Dead bodies are charred beyond recognition.

Citizens complain that two hours have passed and helicopter services have not been bought in.

Families of those who were on board have reached the hospital and some have also attempted reaching the Margall hills crash site.

12:20pm

Twenty bodies have been recovered from the wreckage. No survivors or bodies have reached Pims hospital although it has been more than one and a half hour, according to Express 24/7 reporter Sabur Ali Syed.

Two days have been set for the rescue and clean up operations.

Emergency has been declared in the hospitals and doctors have been called in for duty.

12:06pm

There were five children and two infants on board according to latest details released by CAA.

A Somalian diplomat was reportedly also on board the Airblue flight.

11:59am

The ISPR has announced that an infantry battalion and three helicopters are engaged in rescue operations.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the black box will help determine the real cause of the crash. The Chairman of Airblue has said an investigation is being carried out into the reason behind the crash.

11:50am

The Civil Aviation Spokesperson has said all efforts are being made to search for survivors.

11:44am

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that the entire area is being searched for survivors and the list of passengers has been released.

This is feared to be the biggest disaster in Pakistan’s aviation history. The last crash happened in 2006, when a Fokker plane crashed into a wheat field near Multan, killing all 41 passengers and 4 crew members on board.

11:32am

Eight bodies including that of the pilot have been recovered from the rubble. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has informed that five survivors have been pulled out of the wreckage. There are reports of over 40 injured survivors being transported to hospitals. The survivors have been air lifted and are being transported to hospitals.

11:25am

Six bodies including that of the pilot have been recovered.

Some reports indicate that the plane exploded in the air due to a problem in its fuel tank.

11:20am

Families of victims have been requested to contact the Crisis Management Cell at 051-9211223-4.

There are reports of several casualties, but the exact death toll is still unknown.

The DIG Operations has been asked to supervise rescue efforts.

11:12am

There were 159 passengers and crew on board.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has ordered the Defence Ministry to hold an inquiry. The flight was asked to circle above the airport and delay landing as the Islamabad airport was busy.

11:08am

The flight was asked to delay landing at the Islamabad airport as the airport was busy. The plane then came down near Margalla Hills.

Blaze and heavy fog are hindering rescue efforts.

10:59am

NDMA has sought the help of the army for rescue operations.

Family members of passengers have gathered at the Islamabad airport waiting for some news about their dear ones.

10:52am

Rescue workers have recovered at least one dead body.

Foot rescue workers have reached the area and are carrying out operations. Rescue workers are facing difficult because site is not easily accessible and the weather is also difficult.

10:49am

Three rescue helicopters have reached the site of the crash.

The plane was carrying 146 passengers and six crew members.

10:45am

Hospitals in Islamabad have been put on high alert. The airplane was a private Airblue plane.

10:36am

Police and rescue teams have reached the site of the crash. Helicopters seen reaching the area.

10:20am

Police and rescue teams facing difficulty in reaching the site of the crash.

Thick clouds of smoke were witnessed rising from the Margalla Hills.

15 dead bodies can be seen on the site including those of two women. The bodies are badly burnt and are beyond recognition.

(tribune.com.pk)

ISLAMABAD: Rescue workers have recovered the dead bodies of more than 100 people from the wreckage of an Airblue passenger plane which crashed in the Margalla Hills in Islamabad on Wednesday, the city’s police chief said.

“More than 100 bodies have been found. We have not yet found any survivor or injured,” Bani Amin Khan told AFP.

“The search is continuing,” he added.

For information regarding passengers who were on board the plane, people can contact the Crisis Management Cell at 051-9211223-4.

At least 157 people were on board the ABQ-202, a civil aviation official said.

The 157 included 151 passengers and six crew members, an official said. To view the passenger list, click here.

Rescue workers arrived at the scene and managed to pull out four injured passengers from under the rubble. Meanwhile, the plane’s black box was also recovered, the Civil Aviation Authority said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said five injured people were recovered from the site and were rushed to a hospital for treatment.

Earlier, Imtiaz Inayat, a senior Islamabad municipal official, told a private television channel “several bodies are lying in the area. Four or five bodies have been taken,” Inayat said.

The total number of survivors was not immediately known, another local administration official said.

“Rescue teams have reached the area. They are fully equipped. They are scanning the entire area. Those wounded or survivors are being provided assistance and arrangements have been made to take them to hospitals.

“We are trying to get details about the passengers. It’s a big tragedy. It’s really a big tragedy,” he said.

Mubarik Shah, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, said: We are gathering information. We have no more details.

However, a rescue team that accessed the wreckage of the crashed saw no sign of survivors, a rescue official said.

“I along with four other police and rescue officials reached the crash site. The debris of the plane was scattered there in raging fire. The plane had struck a ridge which fell on the wreckage,” official Arshad Javed said.

“All we could see were charred hands or feet. I collected two heads, two legs and two hands in a bag.”

The plane was flying from Karachi to Islamabad and the exact cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

The aircraft had lost contact with the control tower during the crash which occurred amid thick fog and heavy rainfall in Islamabad.

Guards with the forestry service said they had found some wreckage and seen some bodies, police official Mohammad Saeed said. The army said it was sending special troops to the area to help out along with helicopters.

At the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, hundreds of friends and relatives of those on board the flight swarmed ticket counters desperately seeking information. A large cluster of people also surrounded the list of passengers on the flight, which was posted near the Airblue ticket counter.

”Nobody is guiding anyone. People are running from one counter to another,” said Arshad Mahmood, whose brother, Maulana Nawabul Hasan, a prayer leader in a town near Islamabad, was on the flight.

One Saqlain Altaf told a private television 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 he heard the crash.

Thick clouds of smoke were rising from the Margalla Hills.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered authorities to control the fire immediately and rescue passengers.

The government declared a day of national mourning and called off a cabinet meeting that was scheduled for today.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the cabinet “expressed grief and sorrow over the tragic incident” and offered prayers for passengers who were killed, Gilani’s office said in a statement.

Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for Airblue, said an investigation would be launched, but that for now the focus was to find survivors. The plane was no more than eight years old, and it had no known technical issues, Ahmed said. He added that to his knowledge, the pilots had not sent any emergency signals.

Airblue flies within Pakistan as well as internationally to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom.

The only previous recorded accident for Airblue, a carrier that began flying in 2004, 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.

The airliner began operations in 2004 with a fleet of Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, the company said on its website.

The plane that crashed on Wednesday was also built by Airbus, the European planemaker said.

“We regret to confirm there has been an accident with an Airbus aircraft and we will provide more information when we have more confirmed data available,” Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said.

According to the latest available data published by Airbus, Airblue operates six aircraft from its A320 family of short-haul and medium-haul aircraft seating up to 185 passengers.

Forty-five people were killed when a passenger plane belonging to Pakistan International Airlines crashed near Multan in 2006.