Rains hamper black box search

Pakistan observed a day of mourning on Thursday to commemorate the 152 victims of the crash of Airblue plane Air Bus A321 at Margalla Hills. The National Flag at Presidency, Parliament House, Supreme Court, Prime Minister House and Secretariat and all government buildings were to fly at half-mast to mourn the dead including 146 passengers and six crew members of the ill-fated airlines.
Heavy downpour in Islamabad hampered the recovery efforts at Margalla Hills the site of air crash if Air Blue plane Airbus A321, but the rescue workers continued efforts and 12 bags of body parts were sent to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), said Binyameen, DIG Operations of Islamabad Police on Thursday.
The rescue operation remained continue amid heavy rainfall and workers from different government and welfare organisations took part in search operation and today 12 bags were sent to PIMS and there is no possibility of anymore body parts at site, he said while talking to reporters.
The operation to recover the remains of victims was stopped and could not be resumed due to the heavy rain, he said, adding that difficulty in accessing the site was also complicating salvage efforts. "We are waiting for the rain to stop. In such weather, neither helicopters can fly nor rescue workers move up easily as there is no track to reach at the crash site," he said.
As many as 67 bodies of the victims of air crash of Air Blue plane have been identified and handed over to the relatives for funeral, said Mehmood Jamal, Executive Director of PIMS while talking to reporters on Thursday. The identification of left charred bodies kept at PIMS Hospital and I-10 will be determined after DNA tests being conducted at Aabpara community center, he said, adding that the blood samples of the body parts of the victims who could not be identified and the process of collection of blood samples of relatives of the victims were being taken to match them with the samples of victims.
The process of bodies' identification continued since last night and it will now take about one week to complete the DNA tests process, he added. He said that the victims identified are being handed over to relatives while the remaining charred bodies and body parts have been shifted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa morgue located at I-10 Islamabad.
Dozens of relatives and friends of those killed slept outside Islamabad's largest hospital overnight, hoping to receive the bodies of their loved ones. They were still there on Thursday morning, hugging one another as their tears mixed with the heavy rain, but only a few were able to retrieve their relatives' corpses.
The investigation team of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) remain busy to look into the causes of the plane crash, said Ayaz Jadoon, a senior official of CAA told reporters. He said that the investigators are going through records and documents, though they couldn't go up because of bad weather.
The black box and data recorder of the A-321 Airbus have not recovered so far. He said that the control tower at Islamabad International Airport was sealed off, and the conversation between the plane and the tower was being examined. He said that due to heavy rainfall, evidences on site may be vanished or damaged.