Airbus A321 crashes in Pakistan

An Airbus A321, Flight ED202, operated by AirBlue, a private Pakistani carrier, and carrying 146 passengers, including 5 children plus a crew of 6 crashed on Wednesday, July 28 shortly before 10:00 a.m. local time, on approach to Benazir Bhutto (Islamabad) International Airport (ISB), on a commuter flight from Karachi. There were low clouds with rain at the time of the accident. Visibility was poor. AirBlue flies within Pakistan as well as internationally to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom.

CAPTIONS: (ABOVE LEFT) Rescue workers look for survivors at the site of a passenger plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan (AP Photo); (BELOW RIGHT) Airbus A321 emergency exit door (Wikipedia Common Usage - public domain); (BELOW LEFT) A pair of Airbus A321s at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Pakistan in 2007(Wikipedia Common Usage - public domain); (BELOW RIGHT BOTTOM) Thousands of people gathered at the edge of the city where plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the forested Margalla hills (AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

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Earlier dispatches from the crash site reporting at least 5 survivors were in error. According to Mubarik Shah, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan, there is no information as yet available as to the cause of this tragedy. "We are gathering information. We have no more details,” Mr. Shah said. The Associated Press is reporting that at least 25 bodies have been recovered.

Another Civil Aviation official, Pervez George, said the plane had left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 a.m. for a two-hour scheduled flight to Islamabad and was trying to land during difficult weather. It is currently monsoon season in Pakistan. Airblue is a private service based in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city.

Relatives of many of the passengers, who were awaiting to meet them in Islamabad were in great distress, complaining that no information was being given on survivors or rescue efforts. Apparently, private areas for families of passengers had not yet been established. Some passengers missed the flight in Karachi, because their connecting plane had been late in arriving. As reported by the Associated Press, Arshad Ali said his cousin, Raza Ali, was supposed to be on the flight but missed it in Karachi on his way from Canada. Eleven others had also been lucky in missing this flight.

Airline spokesperson Raheel Ahmed, said an investigation would be launched, but that for now the focus was to find survivors. "The plane was no more than eight years old, and it had no known technical issues," Ahmed said. He added that to his knowledge, the pilots had not sent any emergency signals.

There are about 4,000 Airbus A320 series operating worldwide. It is one of the most popular aircraft in commercial use as a medium-range jet. The A321 is a stretch fuselage version of the A320, and first flew on March 11, 1993. Prior to this incident, for the entire A320 family there have been 16 hull-loss accidents with a total of 637 fatalities. There have also been 33 non-fatal incidents such as engine failure, APU fire, runway excursion, and minor collision near gate, and other incidents of gear malfunction, and glass cockpit (digital instruments) blackout. A US Airways A320, Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River in January 2009 after a double bird strike. The deadliest A320 series accident was a 2007 crash while landing in Sao Paolo by Brazil's TAM airline, Flight 3054, in which all 187 people on board perished, along with 12 others on the ground.

Prior to today's tragic incident, the last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a Fokker F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Flight 688 slammed into a wheat field on the outskirts of the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board.

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