AirBlue Commercial Aircraft Crashes in Islamabad
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GUNNER
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ISLAMABAD, July 28, 2010 (AFP) - A Pakistani airliner carrying 150 people crashed in a ball of flames Wednesday into densely wooded hills above Islamabad amid heavy rain and poor visibility, leaving no sign of survivors.
Rescue officials said pieces of charred flesh and body parts were littered around the smouldering wreckage, partially buried on a remote hillside in the deadliest crash involving a Pakistani passenger jet in 18 years.
Private airline Airblue's flight 202 from Karachi was coming into land at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International airport when witnesses saw a jet lying at unusually low altitude and then heard a loud boom.
The plane disintegrated into a gorge between two hills, enveloped in cloud and some distance from the road, severely hampering rescue efforts and limiting visibility for helicopters hovering overhead, said an AFP correspondent.
"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," said Wajih-ur Rehman, a resident of the smart E-7 neighbourhood in the Margalla foothills.
The civil aviation authority said all possible causes would be
investigated, including terrorism and bad weather, although officials gave no indication that an attack might have been to blame.
"In the last conversation with the control tower, the pilot had been given landing clearance and the plane was proceeding normally for landing before it crashed into the hills," said Riaz-ul-Haq, the authority's deputy director.
"The investigation teams will probe every possible reason behind the crash ranging from the bad weather to terrorism."
Police said rescue workers had recovered the remains of more than 100 people from the wreckage.
Islamabad administration chief Imtiaz Inayat said there had been no
confirmed reports of any survivors, after earlier suggestions that at least five passengers might have survived.
Rescue official Arshad Javed told AFP: "All we could see were charred hands or feet. I collected two heads, two legs and two hands in a bag.
"No survivor was found. We shouted if anyone was there alive, but heard no voice," he said.
"The wreckage of the plane is buried under the debris. First machines have to be deployed there to remove debris of the hill and then we can reach to pull out bodies or survivors -- if any."
The government declared a day of national mourning and called off a cabinet meeting as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expressed his grief over the "tragic incident" and offered prayers for the dead.
Anguished families were in tears after hearing of the disaster while
waiting to meet their relatives at the Islamabad arrivals terminal.
"We cannot explain our agony, we don't know if he is alive," said Bilal
Haider, who had come to collect his younger brother Abbas returning from a trip to Karachi for a job interview.
Airblue spokesman Raheel Ahmed told AFP the Airbus 321 took off from Karachi before 8:00 am (0300 GMT) with 144 passengers and six crew members on board, and speculated that the bad weather could have been at fault. "There was no technical fault in the plane when it took off for Islamabad. The plane was thoroughly checked," he said.
In a statement, Airbus said the single-aisle plane was a relatively young 10 years in age, and the European company offered its full assistance to Pakistani investigators.
Ambulances queued along the nearest road and anxious crowds gathered on the approach to the Margalla Hills to await news.
"It's a big tragedy. It's really a big tragedy," Interior Minister Rehman
Malik told Express TV. State television read out the passenger list. No
foreigners were believed to be among the dead.
Airblue is one of Pakistan's most respected airlines. It has been operating only since 2004, using new Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft on domestic routes and international services to Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Manchester.
Pakistan enjoys a relatively good air safety record.
The most recent fatal commercial crash was a Pakistan International
Airlines Fokker F27 that came down in July 2006, killing 45 people on takeoff from the central city of Multan, bound for Lahore.
The deadliest civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet was a PIA
Airbus A300 that crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on its approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, killing 167 people in September 1992.
Rescue officials said pieces of charred flesh and body parts were littered around the smouldering wreckage, partially buried on a remote hillside in the deadliest crash involving a Pakistani passenger jet in 18 years.
Private airline Airblue's flight 202 from Karachi was coming into land at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International airport when witnesses saw a jet lying at unusually low altitude and then heard a loud boom.
The plane disintegrated into a gorge between two hills, enveloped in cloud and some distance from the road, severely hampering rescue efforts and limiting visibility for helicopters hovering overhead, said an AFP correspondent.
"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," said Wajih-ur Rehman, a resident of the smart E-7 neighbourhood in the Margalla foothills.
The civil aviation authority said all possible causes would be
investigated, including terrorism and bad weather, although officials gave no indication that an attack might have been to blame.
"In the last conversation with the control tower, the pilot had been given landing clearance and the plane was proceeding normally for landing before it crashed into the hills," said Riaz-ul-Haq, the authority's deputy director.
"The investigation teams will probe every possible reason behind the crash ranging from the bad weather to terrorism."
Police said rescue workers had recovered the remains of more than 100 people from the wreckage.
Islamabad administration chief Imtiaz Inayat said there had been no
confirmed reports of any survivors, after earlier suggestions that at least five passengers might have survived.
Rescue official Arshad Javed told AFP: "All we could see were charred hands or feet. I collected two heads, two legs and two hands in a bag.
"No survivor was found. We shouted if anyone was there alive, but heard no voice," he said.
"The wreckage of the plane is buried under the debris. First machines have to be deployed there to remove debris of the hill and then we can reach to pull out bodies or survivors -- if any."
The government declared a day of national mourning and called off a cabinet meeting as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expressed his grief over the "tragic incident" and offered prayers for the dead.
Anguished families were in tears after hearing of the disaster while
waiting to meet their relatives at the Islamabad arrivals terminal.
"We cannot explain our agony, we don't know if he is alive," said Bilal
Haider, who had come to collect his younger brother Abbas returning from a trip to Karachi for a job interview.
Airblue spokesman Raheel Ahmed told AFP the Airbus 321 took off from Karachi before 8:00 am (0300 GMT) with 144 passengers and six crew members on board, and speculated that the bad weather could have been at fault. "There was no technical fault in the plane when it took off for Islamabad. The plane was thoroughly checked," he said.
In a statement, Airbus said the single-aisle plane was a relatively young 10 years in age, and the European company offered its full assistance to Pakistani investigators.
Ambulances queued along the nearest road and anxious crowds gathered on the approach to the Margalla Hills to await news.
"It's a big tragedy. It's really a big tragedy," Interior Minister Rehman
Malik told Express TV. State television read out the passenger list. No
foreigners were believed to be among the dead.
Airblue is one of Pakistan's most respected airlines. It has been operating only since 2004, using new Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft on domestic routes and international services to Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Manchester.
Pakistan enjoys a relatively good air safety record.
The most recent fatal commercial crash was a Pakistan International
Airlines Fokker F27 that came down in July 2006, killing 45 people on takeoff from the central city of Multan, bound for Lahore.
The deadliest civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet was a PIA
Airbus A300 that crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on its approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, killing 167 people in September 1992.
Xeric
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Another shosha from Geo (and they may be right);
International flight safety requires a safety standard of ANO-3 (Air Navigation Order) whereas, PIA and CAA both were able to pass a new ANO namely ANO-4, which has a lower safety rating as compared to ANO-3.
Example, under ANO-3 a pilot, for instance flying from the US to Pakistan, cannot be asked to fly back to London after a few hours until his 24 hour rest is not catered for, BUT under the new ANO-4 pilots can be (and should) fly again even after 4 hours of their landing after a long flight!!
International flight safety requires a safety standard of ANO-3 (Air Navigation Order) whereas, PIA and CAA both were able to pass a new ANO namely ANO-4, which has a lower safety rating as compared to ANO-3.
Example, under ANO-3 a pilot, for instance flying from the US to Pakistan, cannot be asked to fly back to London after a few hours until his 24 hour rest is not catered for, BUT under the new ANO-4 pilots can be (and should) fly again even after 4 hours of their landing after a long flight!!
Jet Li
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Official: No survivors from Pakistan jet crash
Plane carrying 152 people crashes while trying to land in rainstorm
NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 1 minute ago
Rescue workers look for survivors at the site of a passenger plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — All 152 people aboard a Pakistani jet died when the passenger plane crashed into hills as it tried to land on Wednesday, an official told NBC News.
The head of Pakistan's civil defense body told NBC News that no one travelling aboard the Airblue flight had survived.
Earlier reports suggested that up to five survivors had been pulled from the wreckage after the plane smashed into heavily wooded hillside during a rainstorm. There was no explanation for the discrepancy, but reports often differ in the immediate aftermath of such events.
"Dead bodies are lying all around," Bin Yameen, a senior Islamabad police official told Reuters.
Rescuers said they had to dig through the debris with their bare hands, with flames and thick smoke hampering their work. There are no roads near the crash site, limiting access to rescue workers.
NBC News reported that muddy paths through the thickly wooded and foggy area were making it difficult for doctors and paramedics to reach the site by foot.
The cause of the crash of flight ED202 was not immediately clear, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official. He said the Airbus 321 was flying from Karachi to Islamabad.
A reporter for Pakistani TV channel Geo TV said that the pilot was trying to land at Islamabad on schedule at 9:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET), but was told to wait because the airport was busy.
The plane crashed into the rugged Margalla Hills near the Damanekoh resort 13 minutes after losing contact with the airport's control tower.
Relatives of passengers of a Pakistani plane that crashed in hills outside of Islamabad wait in Jinnah International Airport
'The weather is just too bad for flying'
At Islamabad's international airport, passengers in the departure lounge scanned the television screens for news.
"I'm not surprised something like this has happened," Ahmed Fairuz, a passenger awaiting departure, told Reuters. "The weather is just too bad for flying."
There had been heavy monsoon rains in the area for at least a couple of days.
Pakistani news channels showed what appeared to be wreckage of the plane as a helicopter hovered above the heavily forested hills to assess the situation. Fire was visible and smoke was blowing up from the scene. The army said it was sending special troops to the area to help out along with helicopters.
Hundreds of friends and relatives of those on board the flight swarmed ticket counters desperately seeking information at Islamabad's airport. 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 Nawab Ulhasan, a prayer leader in a town near Islamabad, was on the flight.
"I'm praying for his survival, but I think there is little hope," Mahmood said.
Arshad Ali said his cousin, Raza Ali, was supposed to be on the flight but missed it in Karachi on his way from Canada.
"We are happy he missed the flight, but things here are in shambles at the airport," Ali added. "For God's sake, take care of the worried people, the relatives of those who were on the unfortunate plane. They have no information and are just running here and there."
Saqlain Altaf told Pakistan's ARY 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 that he heard the crash.
Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for the airline, 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 U.S.-based Aviation Safety Network.
The Airbus 320 family of medium-range jets, which includes the 321 model that crashed Wednesday, is one of the most popular in the world, with about 4,000 jets delivered since deliveries began in 1988.
Twenty-one of the aircraft have been lost in accidents since then, according to the Aviation Safety Network's database. The deadliest was a 2007 crash at landing in Sao Paolo by Brazil's TAM airline, in which all 187 people on board perished, along with 12 others on the ground.
The last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a Fokker F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines slammed into a wheat field on the outskirts of the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board.
In August 1989, another PIA Fokker, with 54 people onboard, went down in northern Pakistan on a domestic flight. The plane's wreckage was never found.
In September 1992, a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a mountain in Nepal, killing all 167 people on board. Investigators found the plane was flying 1,500 feet lower than it reported as it approached the Katmandu airport.
Official: No survivors from Pakistan jet crash - World news - South and Central Asia - Pakistan - msnbc.com
Plane carrying 152 people crashes while trying to land in rainstorm
NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 1 minute ago
Rescue workers look for survivors at the site of a passenger plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — All 152 people aboard a Pakistani jet died when the passenger plane crashed into hills as it tried to land on Wednesday, an official told NBC News.
The head of Pakistan's civil defense body told NBC News that no one travelling aboard the Airblue flight had survived.
Earlier reports suggested that up to five survivors had been pulled from the wreckage after the plane smashed into heavily wooded hillside during a rainstorm. There was no explanation for the discrepancy, but reports often differ in the immediate aftermath of such events.
"Dead bodies are lying all around," Bin Yameen, a senior Islamabad police official told Reuters.
Rescuers said they had to dig through the debris with their bare hands, with flames and thick smoke hampering their work. There are no roads near the crash site, limiting access to rescue workers.
NBC News reported that muddy paths through the thickly wooded and foggy area were making it difficult for doctors and paramedics to reach the site by foot.
The cause of the crash of flight ED202 was not immediately clear, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official. He said the Airbus 321 was flying from Karachi to Islamabad.
A reporter for Pakistani TV channel Geo TV said that the pilot was trying to land at Islamabad on schedule at 9:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET), but was told to wait because the airport was busy.
The plane crashed into the rugged Margalla Hills near the Damanekoh resort 13 minutes after losing contact with the airport's control tower.
Relatives of passengers of a Pakistani plane that crashed in hills outside of Islamabad wait in Jinnah International Airport
'The weather is just too bad for flying'
At Islamabad's international airport, passengers in the departure lounge scanned the television screens for news.
"I'm not surprised something like this has happened," Ahmed Fairuz, a passenger awaiting departure, told Reuters. "The weather is just too bad for flying."
There had been heavy monsoon rains in the area for at least a couple of days.
Pakistani news channels showed what appeared to be wreckage of the plane as a helicopter hovered above the heavily forested hills to assess the situation. Fire was visible and smoke was blowing up from the scene. The army said it was sending special troops to the area to help out along with helicopters.
Hundreds of friends and relatives of those on board the flight swarmed ticket counters desperately seeking information at Islamabad's airport. 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 Nawab Ulhasan, a prayer leader in a town near Islamabad, was on the flight.
"I'm praying for his survival, but I think there is little hope," Mahmood said.
Arshad Ali said his cousin, Raza Ali, was supposed to be on the flight but missed it in Karachi on his way from Canada.
"We are happy he missed the flight, but things here are in shambles at the airport," Ali added. "For God's sake, take care of the worried people, the relatives of those who were on the unfortunate plane. They have no information and are just running here and there."
Saqlain Altaf told Pakistan's ARY 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 that he heard the crash.
Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for the airline, 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 U.S.-based Aviation Safety Network.
The Airbus 320 family of medium-range jets, which includes the 321 model that crashed Wednesday, is one of the most popular in the world, with about 4,000 jets delivered since deliveries began in 1988.
Twenty-one of the aircraft have been lost in accidents since then, according to the Aviation Safety Network's database. The deadliest was a 2007 crash at landing in Sao Paolo by Brazil's TAM airline, in which all 187 people on board perished, along with 12 others on the ground.
The last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a Fokker F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines slammed into a wheat field on the outskirts of the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board.
In August 1989, another PIA Fokker, with 54 people onboard, went down in northern Pakistan on a domestic flight. The plane's wreckage was never found.
In September 1992, a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a mountain in Nepal, killing all 167 people on board. Investigators found the plane was flying 1,500 feet lower than it reported as it approached the Katmandu airport.
Official: No survivors from Pakistan jet crash - World news - South and Central Asia - Pakistan - msnbc.com
fawwaxs
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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
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
fawwaxs
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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.
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.
Spring Onion
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No survivors 
Geo appologised for reporting there were survivors.
Geo appologised for reporting there were survivors.
fawwaxs
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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.
The plane had its landing gear down at the time of the crash according to the Spokesman of the CAA.
AliFarooq
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