All 48 passengers of a Pakistan International Airways (PIA) flight were killed when it crashed on a mountain slope in the Havelian area 43 miles north of Islamabad.
The Pakistan plane was on its way to Islamabad from Chitral around 3 PM when a mayday call was received from the pilot of Flight PK-662 who reported that he was lost control of one of the plane's engines. Eyewitnesses said that the plane hit the side of the mountain and burst into a ball of flames.
Investigators found the flight recorder buried under the burning debris. So far 46 of the bodies have been recovered, according to the Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority. The cause of the Pakistan plane crash, however, still remains unclear.
One of those who died in the Pakistan plane crash is pop-star Junaid Jamshed, who has devoted his life to preaching Islam. Jamshed rose to fame in the late 1980's with his band Vital Signs that gained a strong following after the death of the country's dictator, General Ziaul Haq.
Jamshed has taken to promoting Islam religious music as a preacher, after giving up on pop stardom. One of his most popular songs - Dil Dil Pakistan - has been known as the "unofficial national anthem" of the country.
"It is a tragic accident and we are not trying to absolve ourselves of responsibility," says PIA chairman Azam Sehgal. He said that this has been a saddening tragedy and said that they always adhere to strict maintenance and safety checks to leave "no room for technical error."
"We accept that it was our aircraft, and these were our passengers, and what happened is very sad. Our focus at the moment is to retrieve dead bodies from the wreckage, transport them to Islamabad and hand them over to their families, " Sehgal added.
The aircraft was an ATR-42 twin-engine model made in 2007 by ATR- a joint venture by Italy's Leonardo and Airbus. The plane has flown a total of 18,740 hours. The captain of the plane, according to Sehgal, was also a flight trainer and had 12000 flight hours of experience.
Sehgal also said that it is standard practice for the company to have their planes checked every 500 flight hours. The plane that crashed was checked and cleared last October.
The Aviation Safety Network, however, reports that Pakistan has a history of air safety failures, the most recent ones were three place crashes back in 2010 that took a total of 185 lives. PIA, itself, also has its share of safety failures.
