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certain that all passengers
were killed in the crash
during stormy weather
outside Islamabad...
A Pakistani passenger jet with
127 people on board has
crashed on its inaugural flight
in stormy weather near
Islamabad. Officials said it was
almost certain that everyone on board had been killed. Witnesses said
the plane, a
second-hand craft leased by
private operator Bhoja Air,
blew up in mid-air as it was
coming into to land. Debris, including fuselage and
bodies, was spread over an
area close to the Pakistani
capital's airport which was
soon inundated by onlookers.
Officials said it was almost certain that everyone on
board had been killed. The incident will focus
attention on safety standards
in an airline industry where
there are grave concerns over
safety and maintenance in the
country's private airlines and the national carrier. A senior
air safety officer said one
private airline was once
caught attempting to repair a
damaged aircraft tire by
taking it to a car tire puncture repair shop. Jamal Hussain, a former head
of Pakistan 's Safety and Investigation Board, said the
country's airlines often
attempt to cut costs by
scrimping on basic
maintenance. "We had a lot of problems
with the private airlines, they
were just not up to the
mark," he said. "Often they would go to the
Ministry of Defence of other
ministries and try to exert
pressure on us. We used to
stand our ground most of the
time." A violent storm had been
lashing the capital at the time
of the crash, at about 6:40pm
on Friday evening. "I saw nothing but body parts
and twisted metal on the
ground when I reached the
scene," said Mustafa, a local
resident. "We collected small
pieces of human flesh and bundled them in cloth sheets
like we collect grain." The last big plane crash –
Pakistan's worst ever –
occurred in July 2010, when an Airbus A321 aircraft operated
by Airblue crashed in the hills overlooking Islamabad, killing
all 152 people on board. A
government investigation
blamed the pilot for veering
off course amid stormy
weather. Bhoja has had a particularly
turbulent history, having
been forced to suspend
operations more than three
times since it was established
as a domestic airline in 1993. It has suffered a series of
setbacks, including in 2000,
when it was forced to
suspend operations after
Pakistani authorities revoked
its air operator's certificate for failing to pay more than $1m
in outstanding dues. After more than a decade of
being grounded, its latest
relaunch was last month,
when the airline announced it
would restart domestic flights
after leasing four used Boeing 737-200 aircraft. Although the airline had been
flying between Lahore and
Karachi in recent weeks,
Friday saw its first flight to
the Pakistani capital. The
company said it wanted to compete with rivals by
offering extremely low prices
starting at just £13 to any
destination inside Pakistan. "My brother's wife was on
board this flight," said Naveed
Khan, who was among family
members who gathered at
Karachi's airport. "We pray for
the departed souls, what else can we do now?""
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