KARACHI: "22 dead" after charter aircraft crash on T/O...

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Type as yet unknown

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11700333

5 November 2010 Last updated at 04:04 GMT

Plane crashes after take-off from Karachi 'killing 22'

A charter plane has crashed shortly after take-off from Karachi airport and reports say all 22 people on board have been killed.

Pervez George, a spokesman for the country's Civil Aviation Authority, told Geo TV there had been a "problem in one of the engines".

Rescue leader Lt Col Noor Alam said there were no survivors.

The aircraft is thought to have been carrying oil company employees to an oil field in Sindh province.

"The plane has been destroyed," Lt Col Alam, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

"The dead bodies are burned beyond recognition. It could not be recognised whether they are men or women. We don't know nationalities."

The incident comes four months after an airliner crashed in stormy weather into the hills around the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing 152 people.

Karachi is the capital of Sindh province. The city, with a population of about 18 million, is Pakistan's largest and the nation's financial centre.

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 874969.cms

21 feared killed in air crash near Karachi airport

PTI, Nov 5, 2010, 08.54am IST

KARACHI: At least 21 people, including some foreign nationals, were feared killed when a small aircraft belonging to a private charter service crashed soon after take-off from the airport in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi.

The Beechcraft 1900C aircraft of JS Air, which had been chartered to ferry employees of a US oil company, had 19 passengers and two crew members on board, Civil Aviation Authority officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels.
The officials said some foreigners were on the aircraft.

Immediately after the twin-engine turboprop aircraft took off from Karachi aircraft at 7.15 am, the pilot informed the control tower that one of the engines had failed.
The pilot was advised to turn back and land.

However, the aircraft crashed into a plot of land near the airport that is controlled by the Pakistan Army's aviation wing and burst into flames.
TV news channels reported the aircraft did not hit any structures on the ground.

Army personnel cordoned off the area and launched a rescue operation after dousing the flames.
Witnesses told the media that it appeared no one had survived the crash. Ambulances of the private Chippa rescue service took at least 10 bodies to the Jinnah Hospital.

The aircraft was taking a group of workers to the Bhitshah oilfield.

JS Air had been chartered by the US oil company to ferry its workers as part of a weekly change of shift at the oilfield. Due to security concerns, the workers are flown directly to the oilfield.