Plane Crashes with About 40 People on Board

Wed, Dec 7, 2016
By publisher
1 MIN READ

Aviation

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A PAKISTAN International Airlines flight crashed Wednesday, December 7, near Abbottabad, officials said.

The airline said the PIA’s ATR-42 aircraft was carrying about 40 people when it lost contact with a control tower on its way from Chitral to Islamabad.

Pop star turned preacher Junaid Jamshed was among those on board flight PK-661, his manager Arsalan Khan told CNN.

Jamshed soared to fame in the 1980s with his band Vital Signs, one of the most iconic pop bands in Pakistan.

After a successful career as a solo singer in the 1990s, Jamshed decided to become a religious cleric.

His last tweet, posted Sunday, showed pictures of “Heaven on Earth” in Chitral — the city where the plane took off.

Authorities have not given a number of casualties.

The ATR-42, a twin-engine propeller plane, is a workhorse of short-haul flying. The aircraft’s manufacturer, ATR, is a joint venture between Airbus Group and Italy’s Leonardo.

Wednesday’s crash is the first fatal airliner accident in Pakistan since 2012 when a Bhoja Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed in bad weather while on approach to Islamabad.

— Dec 7, 2016 @ 15:58 GMT

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