Islamabad plane crash kills all 152 passengers and crew

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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik confirmed that all 152 passengers and crew aboard an Airblue Airbus A320 were killed when it struck a ridge in the Margalla Hills early July 28.

Recovery teams have a tough task in the steep, thickly forested hills where a downpour was occurring at the time of the crash.

The privately owned carrier’s plane was flying from Karachi to Islamabad. Authorities have not determined the cause of the crash.

Some foreigners were among the victims.

“Nobody survived,” Malik told reporters in Islamabad. Soon after the disaster, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani cancelled all activities on his schedule, including a cabinet meeting, Malik added.

“The prime minister, along with three chief ministers and cabinet colleagues, took an aerial view of the crash site and ordered an immediate recovery operation,” Malik said. Gilani also ordered a nationwide day of mourning.

“The government has constituted a five-member investigation board to investigate the causes of the crash,” Malik said. “We cannot reject the possibility of sabotage at this stage. Let’s wait for the investigation report before making any comments.”

“We are using small helicopters to retrieve bodies,” Lt General Nadeem Ahmed told Central Asia Online. Nadeem, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), is heading the recovery operation.

“We have retrieved 102 bodies,” Nadeem said by afternoon. “By night, hopefully, we will retrieve the maximum number.”

A wide array of agencies took part in the grim task. Local hospital vehicles, ambulances, and other rescue vehicles delivered bodies to hospitals throughout the day.

“It is a most difficult retrieval operation as the crash area is inaccessible by car,” said Waheed, an official of the Edhi Rescue Service.

“We are reaching the site by foot through thick forests under a heavy (foliage) canopy,” Waheed said as he returned from the crash site.

“As the plane struck the ridge, debris scattered all around with fires raging,” said Omar Ayub, a former federal minister whose political constituency includes the crash site.

Eyewitnesses told Omar the plane was flying too low and struck the ridge, he said.

Searchers have found the plane’s black box flight recorder, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The plane lost contact with the control tower around 9.45am, a CAA official told a private TV station.

A large number of passengers’ relatives raced to Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad to seek information about their loved ones.

The relatives stormed the facility in search of information, Rahim Khan, an airport official, told Central Asia Online. “There is a heavy rush of the relatives,” he said. “They are desperate. They are crying.”

One reporter at the airport blasted the personnel’s handling of the tragedy. “There is total mismanagement at the airport,” said Shahab, a local journalist who visited the airport two hours after the crash. “Nobody was helping the bereaved families. Men and women were crying desperately and running from one counter to another.”

The CAA is investigating, said Saeed Hasan of Airblue. He rejected the theory that bad weather caused the crash.

“No doubt the weather was bad, but ... it was not below the parameters,” Hasan told media. “The plane had no known technical fault, nor did the pilots send any emergency signals.”

Airblue has established a crisis centre at the airport, he said.

Vehicles have delivered 70 bodies to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), PIMS Executive Director Dr Mehmood Jamal said.

“An emergency has been declared in the hospital, and all the staff is on high alert,” Jamal told Central Asia Online. Identification of the remains will be difficult, requiring DNA testing, as many are disfigured beyond recognition, Jamal said. The government will transport the bodies to their families’ homes free of charge, he added.