ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani aircraft with 152 people on board crashed into the Margalla Hills skirting the capital in the north on Wednesday morning; leaving no survivors and an entire hillside charred. Though hopes of survivors were kept alive for some hours after the crash, the government announced six hours later that all on board were dead. Efforts were afoot to get the bodies till late in the evening.

The Airblue flight ED 202 was flying in from Karachi to Islamabad and had been asked to await landing clearance at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport. While circling through heavy rain, it flew very low over the capital before it headed off towards the thickly wooded Margalla Hills which, according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, is a “no fly zone”.

Eye-witnesses claimed to have seen the aircraft fly very low over Blue Area — the commercial quarters of the capital — and from all accounts, the Airbus 321 had its landing gear down. According to a statement put out by Airblue, the flight crashed due to poor weather and thick fog.

The plane lost contact with the control tower shortly before the crash and late in the evening television networks reported that it had been warned against heading towards Margalla Hills.

An enquiry has been ordered into the crash and the government announced a day of mourning for the victims of what is being billed as one of the worst tragedies in Pakistan’s aviation history.

While the crash site itself was a good kilometre-and-a-half from the nearest road, rescue operations were further slowed down because much of the debris fell into a gorge.

Accessing the debris and the site was made more difficult by the steady rain since Tuesday rendering the terrain slippery and slow to negotiate. Helicopters were pressed into service to send commandoes into the gorge with ropes to cut through the debris and pull up the bodies.

To ensure against a traffic snarl on the approach road, only rescue vehicles were allowed up. Since the crash site was visible from much of Islamabad — particularly Margalla Road — cars were lined up through the picturesque avenue as people tried to catch a glimpse of what was going on. Several Islamabad-based relatives of passengers on the aircraft could be seen trying to access the site from other pathways suitable for trekking.

Emergency was declared in all hospitals in the city soon after the crash in anticipation of survivors.

However, as the day wore on, hopes faded and the focus changed towards identifying the bodies that were being brought in charred and mutilated. The deceased include two American nationals besides a couple of other foreigners. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani made an aerial survey of the crash site along with senior Cabinet colleagues and Chief Ministers of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa who were present in the capital for a Cabinet meeting which has since been postponed as the terror-struck nation steeled itself for another pile of body bags.

source:The hindu