The crash happened in the Model Colony
residential area
A
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger plane flying from Lahore has
crashed into a residential area of Karachi, killing at least 57 people.
The pilots of flight
PK8303, an Airbus A320 carrying 91 passengers and eight crew, were attempting
to land at the city's Jinnah International Airport.
The plane had attempted one
landing but as it went round again lost its engines and issued a mayday call.
At least two passengers are
confirmed to have survived the crash.
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Air disasters timeline
What caused the crash?
It has yet to be confirmed
but here is what we know so far.
Flight PK8303 was
approaching Jinnah International Airport at about 14:30 local time (09:30 GMT).
It had been given permission to land but the pilots decided to abort and go
around for a second attempt.
The reason is not yet
known, but one civil aviation official told Reuters the plane may have been
unable to lower its undercarriage. Images posted on social media appeared to
show scorch marks under both engines, with no undercarriage visible on approach.
Purported audio of the conversation between
air traffic control and a pilot for the second attempt was published by
Pakistani media outlets, in which the pilot is heard saying the plane has
"lost engines". An air traffic controller asks whether it is going to
carry out a "belly landing", to which the pilot replies "mayday,
mayday, mayday" - the final communication from the plane.
Investigators
will try to retrieve the so-called black box recorders to help determine the
cause. A committee of investigation has already been set up.
PIA
said the plane had joined the fleet in 2014 and passed its annual airworthiness
inspection last November.
The
crash came just days after Pakistan began allowing commercial flights to resume
after a coronavirus lockdown.
Pakistanis
across the country are preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan, with many
travelling back to their homes in cities and villages.
What happened at the crash scene?
The
plane was only just short of the runway perimeter when it struck houses in the
Model Colony residential area. TV footage showed rescue crews combing through
debris strewn across the streets of the densely populated zone. A number of
cars were set on fire.
Rescuers evacuate an injured resident
from the site, where a number of houses were destroyed
Eyewitness Mohammed Uzair Khan told the BBC
he had heard a massive sound and went outside his home. "Almost four
houses were completely collapsed, there was so much fire and smoke," he
said. "They are almost my neighbours, I can't tell you what a horrible
thing it was."
Another
resident, Dr Kanwal Nazim, said she heard people screaming and saw clouds of
black smoke rising from the three houses adjoining a mosque.
What do we know about the casualties?
Local
health officials at two hospitals, the Jinnah and Civic hospitals, gave death
tolls to the BBC and Pakistani media, adding up to 57 confirmed deaths. But it
was not clear how many of the dead were passengers and how many residents on
the ground.
Zafar
Masud, president of the Bank of Punjab, was among the passengers who survived
the crash, a provincial government spokesman said. The other known survivor was
named as Muhammad Zubair.
A
senior journalist at TV channel 24 News, Ansar Naqvi, was also listed on the
passenger manifest.
The crash site was just short of the
airport perimeter
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said he
was "shocked and saddened" by the crash,
promising an immediate investigation.
What is Pakistan's safety record like?
Pakistan
has a chequered aviation safety record, including a number of airliner crashes.
In
2010, an aircraft operated by private airline Airblue crashed near Islamabad,
killing all 152 people on board - the deadliest air disaster in Pakistani
history.
In
2012, a Boeing 737-200 operated by Pakistan's Bhoja Air crashed in bad weather
on its approach to land in Rawalpindi, killing all 121 passengers and six crew.
And
in 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames while
travelling from northern Pakistan to Islamabad, killing 47 people.