In a heart-wrenching incident, Pakistan Plane had recently crashed in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi due to a technical glitch that killed 97 people.
It is said that if the pilot of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)’s crashed plane had not ignored three warnings from the air traffic controllers, a major plane crash could have been averted in Pakistan.
The plane broke into two parts and then caught fire quickly, according to the officials, As many as 97 passengers lost their lives in the incident and only two passengers survived.
The plane crashed in a residential area and did not hit any buildings and no casualties happened on the ground. Pakistan Armed Forces spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar said that army troops, rangers and social welfare organizations have been pressed into service.
He added: “97 bodies recovered. 2 passengers survived. 25 affected houses cleared, their residents accommodated at various places with the assistance of Civil Administration.”
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.
The survivor, Muhammad Zubair, said there were 10-15 minutes between the first attempt at landing and the crash. “No-one was aware that the plane was about to crash; they were flying the plane in a smooth manner,” he said.
