PIA crash: Visuals from news channels in Pakistan showed smoke billowing in the sky. The plane went down in a residential area, just short of the Karachi airport.
Agencies
New Delhi, May 22:
A Pakistan International Airlines flight from Lahore, with 99 passengers and eight crew on board, crashed near the Karachi airport, just a minute before it was to land this afternoon. There are no reports on any survivors yet.
Reports in Pakistan media say the flight was an Airbus A320.
The plane went down in what seems like a densely populated residential area – Jinnah Garden area near Model Colony in Malir – just short of the Karachi airport.
The wreckage and several houses in the area are on fire, visuals by Pakistan media showed. Plumes of smoke could be seen billowing in the sky as ambulances tried to make their way through.
“The plane crashed in Karachi. We are trying to confirm the number of passengers but initially it is 99 passengers and eight crew members,” news agency AFP quoted Abdul Sattar Khokhar, the spokesman for the country’s aviation authority, as saying.
Dark plumes of smoke seen near the crash site. #PIA #ModelColony #MalirCantt #Karachi pic.twitter.com/bLBCmG1dXf
— Yusra Askari (@YusraSAskari) May 22, 2020
Pakistan media reported that Pak Army Quick Reaction Force and Pakistan Rangers are at the crash site to assist in relief and rescue efforts, which have been hindered due to the presence of a large crowd and narrow lanes.
Karachi and Lahore are about 1,020 km apart and it takes nearly seven and a half hours for a flight to cover the distance.
The crash comes just days after Pakistan began allowing commercial flights to resume after planes were grounded due to the lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames after one of its two turboprop engines failed while flying from the remote northern to Islamabad, killing more than 40 people.
