News
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Airliner with up to 127 people on board crashes in bad weather, no survivorsHell breaks loose in Islamabad
* Six children, five infants, 68 women and 53 men were on board
* Body parts, wallets and eyeglasses lay among wreckage strewn in a village outside Islamabad
ISLAMABAD: A private company’s airliner with 127 people on board crashed in bad weather as it came in to land in Islamabad on Friday. The plane disintegrated and there were no sign of survivors.
The Boeing 737, operated by Bhoja Air, was on its inaugural flight to the capital from Karachi. It crashed around 11 kilometres off Koral Chowk and about nine kilometres from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.
Body parts, wallets and eyeglasses lay among wreckage strewn in a small settlement just outside Islamabad.
The old-series Boeing, which was 27 years old, took off from the Karachi airport at 5pm and was supposed to land in Islamabad at 7pm.
According to sources in the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the plane lost its contact with the air traffic control at 6:40pm after it was signalled to land.
The Friday plane crash was second such tragedy in the country in less than two years – an Air Blue plane crashed in Margalla Hills in July 2010, killing all 152 passengers on-board.
Six children, five infants, 68 women and 53 men were on-board the ill-fated Bhoja airliner on Friday.
Residents said they had seen a ball of fire in the sky before the plane crashed. Parts of the aircraft smashed into electricity poles, plunging the area in darkness.
Bhoja Air said the airplane crashed during its approach in Islamabad due to bad weather.
A man who had been waiting at Benazir Bhutto International Airport for the flight yelled “my two daughters are dead” as tears streamed down his face.
Nearby, relatives of passengers hugged each other and sobbed. One man cried “my kids, my kids”.
Among them was Zarina Bibi, desperate to determine whether her husband was on the flight. “He called me before leaving Karachi but I don’t know if he was on this flight or not,” said Bibi, whose eyes were red from crying.
“Two years later the same story is being repeated in my house again,” said Nasreen Mubasher, who was at the hospital waiting for the remains of her brother-in-law, who was a passenger. Another brother-in-law died in the AirBlue crash.
At Karachi airport, Asim Hashmi complained the airline’s counter was shut and he had no way of obtaining information on his aunt and cousin, who were on the flight B4-213.
“We don’t know anything,” he said, adding, “Just pray for the souls of the departed. That is all we can do now.”
Sources said black box of the crashed plan had been found and was in custody of security officials.
Bhoja Air re-launched domestic operations with a fleet of five 737s in March. The airline was planning to start flights connecting Karachi, Sukkur, Multan, Lahore and Islamabad. Bhoja had been grounded in 2000 by the CAA amid financial difficulties. zeeshan javaid/agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk