[Tripoli Post] A Boeing 737 commercial plane belonging to Bhoja Airline crashed Friday in Rawalpindi, just before it was to land at an airport in Islamabad, Pakistain killing all 152 people on board. The plane is said to have lost contact with the control tower minutes before landing. Pakistain's Civil Aviation Authority cited poor weather as a possible factor of the crash. At the time the area was shrouded in fog.
The plane, on a domestic flight, was making its first journey from Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
to Islamabad, where the weather was cloudy. Officials initially reported that 131 people were on board. The plane was relatively new. It started flying at the beginning of March.
The crash occurred near the Pak air force's Chaklala airbase, which is adjacent to the Benazir Bhutto
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
International Airport in Islamabad. The government has declared Thursday a day of national mourning for the victims.
Debris and body parts were scattered across the crash site as workers sifted through the wreckage in the heavily populated residential area. At least 50 bodies had been recovered from the scene, a government official said Friday.
Imtiaz Elahi, chairman of the Capital Development Authority, which deals with emergencies, while confirming there were no survivors, said: "It is a great tragedy, and I confirm it with pain that there are no survivors."
The Bhoja airliner, an Airbus A321 with 146 passengers and six crew on board, was flying from the southern seaport city of Bloody Karachi and crashed just before touching down after its 3½-hour flight about five aeronautical miles from the airport in Islamabad.
Authorities are investigating what may have caused the crash and the potential for additional casualties at the site of the wreckage. Aviation security consultant Greg Feith said that the Sherlocks were looking at technology, what kind of radio equipment, what kind of ground proximity warning system the aircraft was equipped with, weather radar, things like that ... since the weather may be a factor in this accident.
Pak Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
expressed "deep shock and grief over the tragedy." He ordered the country's Civil Aviation Authority "to gear up all its resources for rescue operation."
A separate inquiry into the incident has been launched by Pakistain's Safety Investigation Board, and two crisis operation rooms have been set up at airports in both Islamabad and Bloody Karachi to provide accurate and timely information to affected families, reports said. Aamir Ali Ahmed, a senior city government official, told Rooters : "It's a very difficult operation because of the rain. Most of the bodies are charred."
|
