AIR Airbus SE

By Saeed Shah and Waqar Gillani 

ISLAMABAD -- A Pakistan International Airlines domestic flight crashed Friday as it approached Karachi airport with 98 passengers and crew on board, the airline said.

The pilot radioed in an emergency before the crash, the airline said.

"We have lost engine...mayday, mayday, mayday," the pilot told air-traffic control just before the plane went down, according to a voice recording played on local television channels and confirmed as authentic by the airline.

The plane, an Airbus A320, had come from the eastern city of Lahore and was due to land in the southern city of Karachi at around 3 p.m. local time. It went down near Karachi airport, said Athar Awan, a spokesman for the airline.

Arshad Malik, chief executive of PIA, said the plane was on its final approach to the airport. The pilot reported a technical problem to air-traffic control. He was told both runways were available for him to land.

"But the pilot decided to go round," said Mr. Malik. "Why he did that, we will have to investigate."

A spokesman for Airbus SE said that "we are aware of the reports about an accident involving a passenger aircraft in Pakistan. At this time we have no further details."

Ghulam Sarwar Khan, the aviation minister, said the flight would have been carrying passengers going to see their loved ones for the Muslim festival of Eid, which falls this weekend.

Provincial government officials said that the plane went down in the vicinity of a residential area. Rescue operations were under way, with anecdotal reports of survivors.

Thick smoke rose into the air, fires burned on the ground and rubble from buildings and plane parts was scattered in the streets, according to video shown on local television channels. The roofs of some buildings had collapsed.

The pictures showed what appeared to be a middle-class residential area, filled with low-rise apartment buildings.

--Benjamin Katz in London contributed to this article.

Write to Saeed Shah at saeed.shah@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2020 09:51 ET (13:51 GMT)

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