152 die in plane crash near Pakistan’s capital

Associated Press

ISLAMABAD

A passenger jet that officials suspect veered off course in monsoon rains and thick clouds crashed into hills overlooking Pakistan’s capital Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board and scattering body parts and twisted metal far and wide.

The Airblue jet’s crash was the deadliest ever in Pakistan, and just the latest tragedy to jolt a country that has suffered numerous deaths in recent years due to al-Qaida and Taliban attacks. At least two U.S. citizens were on the plane.

The plane left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 a.m. for a two-hour flight to Islamabad and was trying to land when it lost contact with the control tower, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official. Airblue is a private airline based in Karachi, Pakistan.

The aircraft, an Airbus A321, crashed about 15 miles from the airport, scorching a wide stretch of the Margalla Hills, including a section behind Faisal Mosque, one of Islamabad’s most-prominent landmarks.

The exact cause of the crash was not clear immediately, and rescue workers were seeking the “black box” flight data recorder amid the wreckage. But Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said the government did not suspect terrorism.

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