A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger plane crashed in fields on the outskirts of the central city of Multan yesterday, killing all 45 people on board.

 

"Everyone is dead," police chief Iftikhar Babar said as he stood at the spot where the Fokker aircraft, laden with fuel, exploded in flames after hitting a mango orchard wall.

 

Flight PK 688, en route for Islamabad via Lahore, was carrying 41 passengers and four crew.

 

The Fokker F-27 turboprop, built in 1964, crashed around 1.5 kilometers from the airport, just two minutes after takeoff, Farooq Shah, PIA deputy managing director told a news conference in Karachi.

 

Rescue workers from the privately run relief foundation Edhi, the Civil Aviation Authority and troops helped recover the passengers' remains and sift wreckage for clues to the cause of the crash.

 

"There are few bodies which are identifiable," said Shahid Pervez, a civil defense official, as rescue workers loaded charred corpses into ambulances.

 

Police chief Babar quoted some witnesses as saying they saw flames coming from the aircraft shortly after it took off, and it appeared to be tilting to the right.

 

"I saw the plane diving downwards. It hit electricity wires and then crashed after hitting a wall of an orchard," said Mohammad Akram, a farmer who was working in his fields. He said the plane burst into flames after impact.

 

The crash occurred near a state primary school, but there were no casualties other than those on board, officials said. Senior ranking members of the military and judiciary were among the passengers, according to officials in Multan.

 

"We can't say now why the plane crashed. The captain did not make any contact with (the control) tower," the PIA's Shah said, adding that, according to the record of the last 15 days, there was nothing wrong in the aircraft.

 

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz both expressed their grief, according to state-run Pakistan Television. An inquiry was ordered.

 

It was the third Fokker Friendship operated by PIA to have crashed since 1970.

 

Shah said there were no plans to ground the remaining seven Fokkers in PIA's fleet.

 

Late last year, PIA ordered seven new ATR42-500 planes from French company Avions de Transport Regional to replace its Fokkers.

 

(China Daily July 11, 2006)