Crash bodies brought in 100 bags

Islamabad - Distraught
relatives wept on Saturday as
they collected the remains of
loved ones after a Pakistani
passenger jet crashed in bad
weather near Islamabad, killing
all 127 people on board.
The Bhoja Air flight from
Karachi came down in fields
near a village on the outskirts
of capital Islamabad at around
18:40 on Friday evening - the
city's second major fatal air
crash in less than two years.
The airline said the Boeing 737
was carrying 121 passengers,
including 11 children, as well as
six crew.
Civil aviation official Junaid
Khan told AFP: "All 127 people
died. No one survived. There
was no possibility of any
survivor in this crash."
Doctor Waseem Khawaja, who
is in charge of Islamabad's
main hospital, the Pakistan
Institute of Medical Sciences
(PIMS), said bodies had been
brought in more than 100
bags.
Most have been identified
"There was no survivor, all on
board are dead," he told AFP.
The doctor said that despite
the fire, most of the bodies
were not charred and 73 had
been identified already, with
53 handed over to relatives.
Rows of coffins, some
sprinkled with rose petals by
hospital staff as a gesture of
compassion, were lined up in a
room with handwritten notes
identifying the dead by name,
TV images showed.
Police officers and soldiers at
the hospital consoled the
relatives as many,
overwhelmed with emotion,
wept uncontrollably on
receiving the coffins.
The Boeing 737-200 was 28
years old, a Civil Aviation
Authority (CAA) official who
asked not to be named told
AFP, but Bhoja Air insisted
that despite its age, the plane
was safe to fly.
Old aircraft
"The aircraft was old and
second-hand but it is not
something unusual. The fleet
of state-run Pakistan
International Airlines (PIA) also
runs old aircraft," Bhoja Air
official Masham Zafar told AFP.
"Airlines rarely have brand
new planes, and this aircraft
was also refurbished."
She said there was no
technical problem with the
plane and added that the
plane left Karachi with CAA
approval and was given
clearance to land at Islamabad.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani, visiting the hospital, told
reporters a judicial commission
would investigate the crash,
which came less than two
years after the worst ever
air disaster on Pakistani soil.
In July 2010 an Airbus A321
operated by the private
airline Airblue crashed into the
hills overlooking Islamabad
while coming in to land in
heavy rain and poor visibility,
killing all 152 people on board.
Technical assistance
Boeing offered "profound
condolences" to the victims'
families and said it would
provide technical assistance to
the investigation into the
Bhoja crash.
Debris from the crash was
scattered over a two-
kilometre area, with torn
fragments of the fuselage,
including a large section
bearing the Bhoja Air logo,
littering the fields around the
village of Hussain Abad.
Military and aviation officials
said bad weather was
probably behind the crash, as
there was a hail and
thunderstorm over the city at
the time.
A senior PIA engineer told AFP
the age of the aircraft
mattered less than its flying
hours, and said he thought an
air pocket - a patch of low air
pressure - could be to blame.
"Since it was approaching the
airport to land it was
obviously flying low - between
3 000 and 4 000 feet above
the ground," he said.
Pilot lost control
"Visibility was also low because
it was raining and there was
thunder and lightning. The
pilot lost control and
apparently failed to lift it out
of the air pocket."
Bhoja Air began domestic
operations after Pakistan
opened up its skies to private
companies in the 1990s and
ran international flights as far
afield as the United Arab
Emirates, before having its
licence suspended in 2000
after failing to pay dues to
CAA.
It relaunched domestic
operations in March, and
Friday was its first evening
flight from Karachi to
Islamabad.
The deadliest civilian plane
crash involving a Pakistani jet
came in 1992 when a PIA
Airbus A300 crashed into a
cloud-covered hillside on its
approach to the Nepalese
capital Kathmandu, killing 167
people.
- AFP


Source: News24