PAKISTAN: Hope for survivors fade as rescue workers search through wreckage and rush bodies bundled in sheets to a local hospital mortuary after an airliner crashes in Islamabad with 127 on board

Record ID: 382875

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Hope for survivors fade as rescue workers search through wreckage and rush bodies bundled in sheets to a local hospital mortuary after an airliner crashes in Islamabad with 127 on board
  • Date: 21st April 2012
  • Summary: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (APRIL 20, 2012) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) RESCUE WORKERS CARRYING BODIES WRAPPED SHEETS SOLDIERS RUSHING TOWARDS CRASH SITE RESCUE WORKERS COLLECTING BODY PARTS/ PUTTING THEM IN AMBULANCE WRECKAGE OF PLANE WRECKAGE OF PLANE IN COURTYARD OF HOUSE BODIES COVERED WITH SHEETS VILLAGERS ARRIVING AT CRASH SITE SUITCASE LODGED IN TREE (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) UNIDENTIFIED EYE WITNESS SAYING: "The entire sky looked like it was on fire. It was as if the heavens had burst into flames. The plane disintegrated in the air." RESCUE WORKERS CARRYING BODY OF INFANT IN SHEET EXTERIOR OF BENAZIR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AIRPORT CREW STANDING AT EMERGENCY COUNTER SET UP FOR VICTIMS' RELATIVES SIGNBOARD OF DOMESTIC DEPARTURES PEOPLE INSIDE AIRPORT BULLETIN GIVING INFORMATION ABOUT PLANE CRASH PEOPLE AT INFORMATION DESK EXTERIOR OF PAKISTAN INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES (PIMS) SIGNBOARD OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT MEDICAL STAFF AND RELATIVES OF VICTIMS STANDING OUTSIDE HOSPITAL AMBULANCES ARRIVES AT HOSPITAL PEOPLE CROWDING AROUND AMBULANCE VARIOUS OF COVERED BODIES BEING TAKEN OUT OF AMBULANCES AND TAKEN INTO HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF RELATIVES STANDING MORE OF COVERED BODIES BEING WHEELED INTO HOSPITAL RELATIVES AT HOSPITAL WAITING
  • Embargoed: 6th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan, Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Accidents,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAE29XH82P2ASMS92Q0GY50JOD8
  • Story Text: As ambulance services drove bodies to an Islamabad hospital late into the night on Friday (April 20) all hopes faded of finding survivors in a Pakistani airliner crash that was carrying 127 people.
    Rawal Khan Maitla, director general of Emergency Disaster Management for the Capital Development Authority, announced there were no survivors.
    At the capital's main hospital, stunned relatives could be seen waiting for information as hospital staff rushed covered bodies into the mortuary.
    The Boeing 737, operated by local airline Bhoja Air, was flying to the capital from Pakistan's biggest city and business hub Karachi. It crashed into wheat fields more than 5 miles from the airport in bad weather.
    Rescue workers walked through mud at the crash site with flashlights or with the lights of their cellphones looking for passengers' remains.
    A local resident said the plane burst into flames in the air before it came apart.
    "The entire sky looked like it was on fire. It was as if the heavens had burst into flames. The plane disintegrated in the air," he said.
    State television reported that all hospitals in Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi had been put on high alert after Friday's crash.
    There was no indication from the government that it could have been the result of foul play. Local television showed pictures of what it said were the plane's black box.
    The last major aviation accident in Pakistan was in July 2010, when a commercial airliner operated by AirBlue with 152 people on board crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad.
    In 2006, a Pakistan International Airlines aircraft crashed near the central city of Multan, killing 45 people.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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