Islamabad: A Pakistani passenger aircraft crashed in the Margalla Hills overlooking Islamabad in rainy weather yesterday, killing all 152 people on board.
President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan sent a cable to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari offering condolences on the deaths of the passengers and crew.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, sent similar cables to Zardari.
The Airblue ED202 left Karachi at 7.45am on a two-hour flight to Islamabad and was trying to land in cloudy and rainy weather.
Audio: Radio 1 reports on the Pakistan air crash
Initially, there were conflicting reports about the casualties, but Interior Minister Rahman Malek confirmed that there were no survivors in what is one of the worst disasters in the country's aviation history.
"All 152 on board, including six crew members, were killed," Malek said, as rescuers from the military, civil departments and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), aided by three helicopters, searched for bodies.
According to officials, the plane was descending for a landing when it hit a ridge in the hilly terrain.
"It was torn to pieces ... scattering wreckage and body parts over 300-400 metres," they said.
Locator map:
Graphic: Jacob Hernandez/Gulf News
There was no credible clue to the cause of the crash, but civil aviation experts, including former pilots, believe that poor weather conditions in the Margalla valley could have caused the plane's engines to stall.
An Airblue spokesman said the 10-year-old Airbus A321 was "100 per cent airworthy" and its chief pilot had 35 years of flying experience.
NDMA Chairman Nad-eem Ahmad said the remains of more than 100 victims had been recovered by rescue teams, but their efforts were hampered by the rain.
He added that search operations would continue through the night and were likely to be completed today. Unconfirmed reports said the plane's black box had been found and that Airbus will be sending a team from France to help investigate the crash.
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The last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a Fokker F-27 aircraft crashed on the outskirts of Multan killing all 45 people on board.
Airblue operates flights within Pakistan, as well as to the UAE, Oman and the UK. It makes a fuel stop in Turkey when it flies from Manchester to Pakistan.
In pictures: Pakistan air crash
The government ordered an inquiry and declared a national day of mourning. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani cancelled a cabinet meeting and made an aerial inspection of the site.
— With inputs from WAM
