Islamabad, Dec. 7 (NIA) – A Pakistan International Airline, with 47 on board, crashed on the way to Islamabad from Chitral on Wednesday.
Global aviation watchdog Aviation Herald, quoted in local media reports said that PK-661 crashed near Abbottabad, in a mountainous part of Pakistan, due to engine problems.
Laiq Shah, a senior police official in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the plane had crashed in the province’s Havelian area.
The flight departed from Chitral around 3:30pm (local Pakistan time) and was expected to land at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport at around 4:40pm.
“PIA’s ATR-42 aircraft operating as PK-661, carrying around 40 persons lost its contact with the control tower on its way from Chitral to Islamabad a short while ago,” PIA Spokesman Daniyal Gilani tweeted. “All resources are being mobilised to locate the aircraft.”
Paksitan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan have directed the concerned federal departments to immediately initiate rescue efforts and help provincial government, Press Information Department, reported in Dawn said.