Pakistani airliner with 107 people aboard crashes in Karachi
Images aired on national TV showed the Pakistan International Airlines flight, an Airbus A320, had slammed into a residential area.
“The plane crashed in Karachi. We are trying to confirm the number of passengers but initially it is 99 passengers and eight crew members,” said Abdul Sattar Khokhar, the spokesman for the country’s aviation authority, adding that the flight was coming from Lahore, according to Agence France-Presse.
There were no immediate reports on the number of casualties.
A spokesman for the Pakistan Armed Forces tweeted that helicopters were being used in the search and rescue effort and that paramilitary troops had reached the site, according to Sky News.
The crash comes just days after the country began allowing commercial flights to resume after planes were grounded during a lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Pakistan has a checkered military and civilian aviation safety record.
In 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames after one of its two turboprop engines failed while flying from the remote northern to Islamabad, killing more than 40 people.
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