48 killed as PIA plane crashes near Abbottabad

TIL Desk/World/Islamabad/Peshawar- All 48 people on board a PIA plane, including famous pop singer-turned-Islamic preacher Junaid Jamshed and three foreigners, were killed as the aircraft crashed and burst into flames in a hilly area near Pakistan’s Abbottabad after facing engine problems.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane PK-661 with 48 people, including Jamshed, his wife and Deputy Commissioner Chitral Osama Warraich, on board crashed in Saddha Batolni village near Pakistan Ordinance Factory, Havelian, while en route to Islamabad from Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that there are no survivors. So far, 36 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage. The national carrier’s flight departed from Chitral around 3:30 PM and was expected to land at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport at around 4:40 PM.

 A PIA spokesman confirmed that the pilot of the ill-fated plane had given a ‘mayday’ distress call to traffic control before it went off the radar and crashed near the garrison town of Abbottabad.

PIA Spokesman Daniyal Gilani said there were 42 passengers, five crew members and one ground engineer on board. The plane manifest showed there were 31 men, 9 women and 2 infants on board the flight, including three foreigners. A senior aviation official said the aircraft suffered engine problems.