Crewmembers among 152 killed in crash: Malik

ISLAMABAD,Jun 28: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said all 152 persons including crewmembers onboard have been killed in the crash. Earlier, there were reports of survival of five people.All passengers including crew members boarded on plane, crashed near the Margalla Hills Islamabad were killed Wednesday, said Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Federal Minister Rehman Malik has confirmed that all the 152 passengers boarded on plane were killed in plane crash near Margalla Hills.

“Rescue teams did not found any survivor during operation,” said Malik.

“The incident may be attributed to the pilot’s fatigue,” said President PALPA Captain Sohail Baloch. “The pilot may be suffering from accumulated fatigue because they are not given adequate leaves.”

Captain Sohail Baloch said that the route was not a no-fly zone, as speculated. The plane exceeded the safety distance due to bad weather. This decision was, again, taken by the pilot who couldn't determine appropriate landing route. The ISL system's access ends a little before Islamabad and the pilot had to resort to visual queues for landing.

There could be other reasons to the crash, which will only be uncovered after the investigation is complete.

Airport sources said the Air Blue flight ED-202 took off at 7:50am from Karachi to Islamabad and crashed at 9:50 a.m. It lost communication with the control tower due to bad weather.

Deceased and injured have been shifted to PIMS hospital, said rescue sources.

“The cause of the incident is not known so far,” said Saeed Hasan spokesperson Airblue. “None of the scheduled flights have been cancelled”.

PIA spokesperson asked the passengers' relatives to reach Karachi Airport by 4:00 p.m.

"The seats to the relatives will be provided on the basis of availability," said PIA spokesperson.

An emergency has been imposed in all hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has set up a six-member investigative team, headed by Air Commodore Khwaja Majeed to probe the incident.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered a rescue operation and expressed grief over this tragic incident.

The Cabinet has announced one-day mourning over the incident.

The passengers' relatives can call on the given numbers for any query: 021-99071385, 051-903132.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that such accidents cannot be eliminated. "They happen all over the world," he said.

"Though precautionary measures should be taken and they are very important."

AGENCIES ADD: All passengers and crew on board a Pakistani passenger plane carrying 152 people are believed to have been killed when it crashed near Islamabad on Wednesday, an official said.

Two Americans were among the victims, a U.S. embassy spokesman told Reuters. He had no further details.

"There are no survivors. We believe all are dead. We are recovering the remains of the dead bodies from the wreckage," Imtiaz Elahi, chairman of Islamabad's Capital Development Authority told Reuters.

The crash site is on the Margalla Hills facing Islamabad, about 300 meters (yards) up the side of the hills. Smoke was visible from some districts of the city, and crowds of onlookers lined the streets pointing and watching the smoke rise from the green hills.

"It was raining. I saw the plane flying very low from the window of my office," witness Khadim Hussain said.

HEAVY RAINS

There had been heavy monsoon rains in the area for at least a couple of days.

Airblue began operations in 2004 with a fleet of Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft.

Spokesman Raheel Ahmed said this was the first crash for the airline.

Airbus confirmed one of its planes was involved in the Airblue crash.

"We regret to confirm there has been an accident with an Airbus aircraft and we will provide more information when we have more confirmed data available," said Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath.

At Islamabad's international airport, passengers in the departure lounge scanned the television screens for news.

"I'm not surprised something like this has happened," said Ahmed Fairuz, a passenger awaiting departure. "The weather is just too bad for flying."

Aviation industry sources in Europe said the aircraft was leased from International Lease Finance Corp, the leasing unit of U.S. insurance giant AIG

Los Angeles-based ILFC was not available for comment and there was no immediate confirmation of these details.

The A321 is the largest of the A320 family of single-aisle jets produced by EADS subsidiary Airbus. This particular type of aircraft, which can seat up to 185 passengers, has been in service since 1994.