Karachi: A Pakistan International Airlines plane from Chitral to Islamabad crashed near Havelian in Abbottabad district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday killing 48 people.


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The passenger flight PK-661 had 42 passengers, five crew members and one ground engineer on board.


Singer-turned-Islamic-preacher Junaid Jamshed, his wife, deputy commissioner Chitral, Osama Warraich and three foreigners were among the list of passengers.


Jamshed is said to have gone to Chitral for religious preaching.


The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that there were no survivors, as per PTI.


The flight had taken off from Chitral around 3:00 pm but reportedly lost communication with the control tower around 4:30 pm and subsequently crashed in Saddha Batolni village near Pakistan Ordinance Factory.


The flight initially left from Peshawar for Chitral.


Issuing a press release, PIA said:



On the other hand, Azhar Nawaz, chief information officer tweeted about the plane involved in the tragic incident:




Emergency phone numbers for updates issued are as follows - 0092-21-99044890, 0092-21-99044376 and 0092-21-99044394.


Speaking to reporters at the Islamabad airport, secretary Aviation Irfan Ilahi said that ATR-42 turboprob plane suffered engine problems.


"It is premature to say anything at the moment, but we know that the aircraft had engine problems," he said.


Following is how some of the politicians and celebrities of Pakistan reacted on social media about the crash:







In 2012, a Bhoja Airline plane, a Boeing 737 carrying 121 passengers and six crew members, crashed near Islamabad just before touchdown.


The worst aviation tragedy on Pakistani soil came in July 2010 when an Airbus 321 passenger jet operated by the private airline Airblue crashed into hills overlooking Islamabad. The flight was coming from Karachi. All 152 people on board were killed in the accident, which occurred amid heavy rain and poor visibility.


Another deadly civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet occured in 1992 when a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on its approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, killing 167 people.


(With Agency inputs)