40 bodies recovered, dozens more feared dead in Pakistan plane crash

At least 40 dead bodies have been recovered after a Pakistani plane crashed with nearly 100 people on board in the southern city of Karachi on Friday, according to rescue officials, with dozens more feared dead.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane was close to landing when it came down among houses, sparking an explosion and killing several people on the ground.

"We have recovered 40 plus bodies so far," Major Mohammad Mansoor from the Pakistan Rangers, who was overseeing the rescue operation, told AFP.

Faisal Edhi, who heads the charitable Edhi Foundation that was assisting rescuers, gave a slightly higher figure saying at least 42 dead bodies had been recovered from the area.

"As per our estimates there are around 50 more dead bodies under the debris," he said in a live television broadcast.

At least two passengers survived the crash, according to Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, the information minister in Sindh province where Karachi is located.

Plumes of smoke were sent into the air as rescue workers and residents searched the debris for survivors and firefighters tried to extinguish the flames. An AFP reporter witnessed charred bodies being loaded into ambulances.

Sarfraz Ahmed -- a firefighter at the crash site -- told AFP the nose of the Airbus A320 and the fuselage had been heavily damaged by the impact, adding that rescuers had pulled four bodies from the wrecked aircraft, including some who were still wearing seatbelts.

Seemin Jamali, a director from Jinnah Post Graduate Medical College in the city, said eight dead and 15 injured people had been brought to the facility.

"They were all from the ground, no (plane) passengers have been brought here," she said.

- Technical fault -

The plane had developed a technical fault, interior minister Ijaz Ahmad Shah said, adding that the pilot issued a mayday call after the craft lost an engine.

PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said there were 91 passengers and seven crew on board the flight, which lost contact with air traffic control just after 2.30pm (0930 GMT).

An aviation authority spokesperson said the number of crew on board was eight.

Residents near the scene said their walls shook before a big explosion erupted as the aircraft slammed into their neighbourhood.

"I was coming from the mosque when I saw the plane tilting on one side. The engines' sounds were quite weird. It was so low that the walls of my house were trembling," said 14-year-old witness Hassan.

Karachi resident Mudassar Ali said he "heard a big bang and woke up to people calling for the fire brigade".

The disaster comes as Pakistanis across the country are preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr, with many travelling back to their homes in cities and villages.

Abdul Sattar Khokhar, a spokesman for the country's aviation authority, said the Airbus A320 was travelling from Lahore to Karachi.

- 'Prayers & condolences' -

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was "shocked and saddened" by the crash, tweeting that he was in touch with the state airline's chief executive.

"Prayers & condolences go to families of the deceased," he wrote on Twitter.

Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the plane crashed into a residential area minutes before it was due to land.

The Pakistan military said security forces had been deployed to the neighbourhood and helicopters were being used to survey the damage and help ongoing rescue operations, while offering condolences over the "loss of precious lives" in the incident.

Commercial flights resumed only days ago, after planes were grounded during a lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.

Pakistan has a chequered military and civilian aviation safety record, with frequent plane and helicopter crashes over the years.

In 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames after one of its two turboprop engines failed while flying from the remote north to Islamabad, killing more than 40 people.

The deadliest air disaster on Pakistani soil was in 2010, when an Airbus A321 operated by private airline Airblue and flying from Karachi crashed into the hills outside Islamabad as it came into land, killing all 152 people on board.

An official report blamed the accident on a confused captain and a hostile cockpit atmosphere.

PIA, one of the world's leading airlines until the 1970s, now suffers from a sinking reputation due to frequent cancellations, delays and financial troubles. It has been involved in numerous controversies over the years, including the jailing of a drunk pilot in Britain in 2013.

Agence France-Presse

'Smoke on board' EgyptAir plane before crash

CAIRO -- Smoke was detected inside an EgyptAir plane shortly before it plunged into the Mediterranean with 66 people on board, investigators said Saturday, offering clues but no answers as to why it crashed.

The Airbus A320 had been flying from Paris to Cairo early Thursday when it plummeted and turned full circle before vanishing from radar screens, without its crew sending a distress signal.

Egypt's military released pictures of wreckage recovered so far, including a pink bag decorated with butterflies, a life vest, shredded seat covers and mangled debris showing the EgyptAir name.

France's aviation safety agency said Flight MS804 had transmitted automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin as the disaster unfolded.

While the information may help investigators, more wreckage including the black boxes will need to be found before they can piece together what happened.

"There were ACARS messages emitted by the plane indicating that there was smoke in the cabin shortly before data transmission broke off," a spokesman for France's Bureau of Investigations and Analysis told AFP.

It was "far too soon to interpret and understand the cause of the accident as long as we have not found the wreckage or the flight data recorders", he said.

ACARS -- Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System -- transmits short messages between aircraft and ground stations.

Nothing ruled out

Search teams were scouring the eastern Mediterranean Saturday for more parts of the plane and the black boxes.

While Egypt's aviation minister has pointed to terrorism as more likely than technical failure, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Saturday that nothing was being ruled out.

"At this time... all theories are being examined and none is favored," he told a news conference in Paris.

The disaster comes just seven months after the bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai peninsula in October that killed all 224 people on board.

In the wake of that incident foreign governments issued travel warnings for Egypt and demanded a review of security at its airports after the Islamic State group said it had downed the plane with a bomb concealed in a soda can.

The Islamic State group was quick to claim responsibility for that attack, but there has been no such claim linked to the EgyptAir crash.

Sharp turns

A French patrol boat carrying equipment capable of tracing the black boxes was expected on Sunday or Monday.

The plane disappeared between the Greek island of Karpathos and the Egyptian coast in the early hours of Thursday. It had turned sharply twice before plunging 22,000 feet and vanishing from radar screens, said Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos.

The passengers were 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, two Iraqis, two Canadians, and citizens from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. They included a boy and two babies. Seven crew and three security personnel were also on board.

The European Space Agency said one of its satellites on Thursday spotted an oil slick about 40 kilometers southeast of the plane's last known location.

Grieving families

EgyptAir Holding Company chairman Safwat Moslem told AFP on Saturday the priority was finding the passengers' remains and the flight recorders, which will stop emitting a signal in a month when the batteries run out.

"The families want the bodies. That is what concerns us. The army is working on this. This is what we are focusing on," he said.

Relatives of the passengers gathered at a hotel near Cairo airport on Friday after meeting airline officials as they struggled to come to terms with the catastrophe.

"They haven't died yet. No one knows. We're asking for God's mercy," said a woman in her 50s whose daughter had been on board.

But on Saturday, a funeral service was held at a church in Cairo for 26-year-old EgyptAir hostess Yara Hany Farag, who was on Flight MS804.

In a hall inside the church compound decorated with flowers, a picture of a smiling Yara was placed on a cross covered entirely with white flowers: the young woman was engaged and expecting to be married in the coming months.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

American Airlines pilot dies during US flight

NEW YORK - An American Airlines pilot become ill and died during a flight from Phoenix to Boston Monday but the co-pilot was able to safely land the plane, the US carrier said.

The aircraft, an Airbus A320 with 147 passengers and a five-member crew on board, was diverted to Syracuse Hancock International Airport in New York state.

"Unfortunately, our pilot passed away. We are incredibly saddened by this event, and we are focused on caring for our pilot's family and colleagues," American Airlines said in a statement.

American did not provide any details on the cause of death.

Flight 550 left Phoenix, Arizona at 11:55 pm local time and landed in Syracuse at 7:13 am local time.

A replacement crew was sent to Syracuse to shuttle the passengers to Boston.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Air Canada flight slides off Halifax runway, 23 injured

An Air Canada flight crash landed and slid off the runway in the east coast city of Halifax on Sunday(March 29), with the airline confirming 23 passengers and crew suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The airline said the incident happened shortly after midnight local time (0300 GMT), and 18 of the 23 admitted to hospitals for observation and treatment of minor injuries had been released.

Air Canada said the Airbus A320 flying from Toronto was carrying 133 passengers and five crew members. The airline did not give the cause of the accident but said it was cooperating fully with investigators.

It was snowing heavily at the airport at the time of the accident. Passengers interviewed by local media described a "big flash" before landing and speculated the flight may have struck a power line, but this was not confirmed by the authorities.

Peter Spurway, a spokesman for the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, told local media that two people from the plane required "urgent care". He also confirmed power was out at the airport around the time of the crash but did not give the cause. Power has since been restored.

The federal agency said it was deploying a team to investigate the crash.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com