A PAKISTANI passenger plane crashed in heavy rain and low cloud near Islamabad yesterday morning, killing all 152 people on board in the country’s worst air accident. Witnesses said the Airbus 321, operated by private carrier Airblue, failed to clear densely wooded hills on its approach to land.
Rescuers had to dig through the wreckage with their bare hands as fire, thick smoke and poor weather hampered their efforts.
Imtiaz Elahi, chairman of the Capital Development Authority, which co-ordinates emergency efforts, said: “There are no survivors. We believe all are dead. We are recovering the remains of the dead bodies from the wreckage.”
Officials said they could not rule out a terror attack although poor weather seemed to be the most likely cause. Experienced pilots say Islamabad is a tricky destination. The Margalla Hills to the north and unpredictable weather patterns make landing awkward even in good weather.
The monsoon rains and misty conditions over the hills meant an earlier flight was diverted to Lahore and services elsewhere in the country had been disrupted.
Some reports suggested the aircraft had been redirected because of the weather but had then strayed off course. Witnesses said they watched the ill-fated plane struggle on its final approach. “I wondered why the plane wasn’t flying higher as it was flying towards the hill,” said Anjum Rahman, a reporter with a TV news channel who saw the aircraft from the window of her home. “Then within three or four minutes I heard a loud explosion.”
The aircraft caught fire as it crashed into the densely wooded hillside, scattering debris over a wide area. A plume of smoke rose into the air, drawing a crowd of spectators at the edge of the city several hundred metres below. Some made their way up the muddy slopes to help rescuers in their grim task.
“You find very few intact bodies. Basically, we are collecting body parts and putting them in bags,” said Bin Yameen, a police officer.
Twisted wreckage hung from trees and lay scattered across the ground on broken branches.
Rescue workers collected body parts to be loaded into bags slung beneath helicopters which were unable to land on the steep hillside. Officials initially said five people had survived. TV stations then said more than 40 had walked from the crash, sending relatives and friends to Islamabad’s main hospitals. Crowds rushed to greet ambulances as they began arriving at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Abdul Razak, a 25-year-old student from Somalia, was waiting for news of two friends who were on the flight. “We are hoping for good news,” he said. “We will not give up just yet but the longer this goes on the worse it looks.”
Gradually it became clear that the ambulances were carrying bodies not survivors.
The dead included two Americans, according to a spokesman for the US embassy.
Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for the airline, said an investigation would start into the cause of the crash. The pilots of the 10-year-old aircraft did not send any emergency signal, Mr Ahmed said.
Airblue was set up in 2004, flying to the UK and Middle East as well as operating domestic services. Its modern fleet has a good safety record and its reputation for service has attracted business travellers from state-owned PIA.
The deadliest civilian crash involving a Pakistani jet was a PIA Airbus A300 that crashed into a hillside on its approach to Kathmandu, killing 167 people in September 1992.