A chartered plane owned by JS Air crashed here Friday seconds after departure from Jinnah International Airport, killing all 21 people on board, CAA officials said. The plane was carrying ENI staff, an Italian company, to the Bhit gas field in Jamshoro district, where they were carrying out exploration.
Civil Aviation Authority officials told Business Recorder that a chartered flight of JS Air Aircraft type Beech-1900 took off from Karachi International Airport for Bhit Shah. Pilot reported engine problem just after take off and was cleared by control tower for immediate landing.
However, the aircraft crashed within a minute approximately 1 nautical mile from Karachi Airport. Two crewmembers and 19 others were on board and all expired in the crash. The officials said that an enquiry has been ordered by the authority into the crash.
They said the black box could not be recovered as yet. However, efforts are under way to recover the box to ascertain the reasons of the crash, they added. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police Sultan Ali Khawaja said all the 21 people including pilot, co-pilot, engineer and an ASF jawan were killed. Heavy machinery was rushed to the spot to recover the dead bodies. He said all the 21 bodies have been recovered from the aircraft.
Meanwhile, the ENI identified its staffers as Antonio Sasso (Italian citizen) while Pakistan staffers include Khalid Altaf Hussain, Sadaqat Hussain, Nisar Ahmed Jamali, Noor Khan, Saeed Moazzam, Ahmed Nadeem, Muhammad Azam Nizamani, Sajid Rafique, Muhammad Alam Rana, Amir Raza, Saleemuddin, Iqbal Hussain Shah, Shahid Siddique, Syed Imran Anwar Syed Irshad Ali and Muhammad Tahir.
Later, the rescuers of Edhi, Chippa and Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation shifted the dead bodies to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) for identification. A large number of passengers' relatives reached hospitals to collect the dead bodies of their beloved ones. However, the bodies were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.
Sources in JPMC told Business Recorder that five bodies has so far been identified and handed over to the heirs. They said body of pilot Naeem-ul-Haq was identified and handed over to his brother Khalil-ur-Rehman. He was the resident of North Karachi. They said the body of ASF Sub Inspector Zafar Iqbal has also been identified.