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Passenger plane crashes in Pakistan Passenger plane crashes in Pakistan
(40 minutes later)
An aircraft with 127 people on board has crashed in Pakistan. A Pakistani passenger jet with 127 people on board has crashed as it was landing in bad weather at an airport near the capital, Islamabad, officials said. A government minister expressed little hope of finding survivors.
Local television channels reported that a commercial airliner operated by operated by Bhoja Air went down near Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International airport. The Bhoja Air Boeing 737-200 went down in farmland just a few miles from the Benazir Bhutto International airport, defense minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhar said.
The aircraft was believed to have been flying to the Pakistani capital from Karachi. Mukhar said civil aviation officials had reported it was unlikely that anyone survived. It was unclear if there were any casualties on the ground, but the crash happened in what appeared to be a relatively unpopulated rural area.
All hospitals in Islamabad and neighbouring Rawalpindi have been put on alert. A violent rain and wind storm was lashing parts of the capital around the same time as the crash, which occurred about 6.40pm on Friday.
More details soon ... The aircraft had been travelling from the country's largest city, Karachi, to the Pakistani capital, officials said.
"We can see the plane's wreckage is on fire and we are trying to extinguish it," emergency official Saifur Rehman told Geo TV from the scene. "We are looking for survivors."
TV footage showed wreckage of the plane, including parts of what looked like its engine and wing, up against the wall of a small building. Rescue officials were working in the dark, with many using flashlights as they combed the area.
The last major plane crash in the country and 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 in stormy weather. The impact of the crash was devastating, scorching a wide swath of the hillside and scattering wreckage over a half-mile stretch. Most bodies were so badly damaged that identification required DNA testing.