Pakistan plane with 47 crashes: 'Pilot gave distress call before plane went off the radar'

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan International Airlines plane with 47 people on board crashed on Tuesday in a hilly area near the garrison town of Abbottabad while on its way to the capital. The ATR plane PK-661 with 47 people, including singer-turned-Islamic-preacher Junaid Jamshed, on board crashed near Havelian while en route to Islamabad from Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. The national carrier's flight departed from Chitral around 3.30pm and was expected to land at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport at around 4.40pm. A PIA spokesman confirmed that the pilot of the ill-fated plane had given a 'mayday' distress call to traffic control+ before it went off the radar. "The ATR aircraft flight had 42 passengers, including nine women and two infants, along with two air hostesses and three pilots," he said. The flight initially left from Peshawar for Chitral and was returning to Islamabad from there before it went off the radar. The PIA spokesman said that Pakistan army had dispatched a helicopter and troops to the crash site. Jamshed had gone to Chitral for religious preaching, his brother said. District Police Officer Abbottabad confirmed the aircraft crashed near Havelian between Majab and Piplian. Eyewitnesses were quoted as saying by media reports that they had seen a plane crash in a hilly area near Havelian. Clouds of smoke could be seen rising from the area of the reported crash. Ground rescue teams had been sent to the area, officials said. "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." Pakistan has had a poor air safety track record in recent years.