'There are no survivors': Up to 48 people die in plane crash in Pakistan
More than 35 bodies have been pulled from the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Pakistan, with one of the country's best-known pop stars among the 48 people on board.
Two children are among the dead with witnesses at the site of the flaming crash saying there were unlikely to be any survivors.
The military said 36 bodies had been recovered and rescue efforts involved about 500 soldiers, doctors and paramedics following the crash on Wednesday afternoon.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said its plane lost contact with the control tower en route to the capital, Islamabad, from the northern region of Chitral.
All people on board the Pakistan International Airlines flight have died, the airline confirmed. Source: AP
More than 500 troops and medical staff were at the working at the crash site. Source: AP
"There are no survivors, no one has survived," PIA chairman Muhammad Azam Saigol told a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
The airline said the plane crashed in the Havelian area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, about 125 kilometres north of Islamabad. The region is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Pakistan.
"All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris is scattered," Taj Muhammad Khan, a government official based in Havelian, told Reuters.
Khan, who was at the crash site, said witnesses told him "the aircraft has crashed in a mountainous area, and before it hit the ground it was on fire".
Images shown on Pakistani TV channels showed a trail of wreckage engulfed in flames on a mountain slope.
Pakistan army troops and rescue workers collect remains of victims at the site of a plane crash, in a village near the town of Havelian. Source: AP
A man shows a piece showing information at the location of the PIA ATR-42 turboprop passenger plane. Source: EPA
Police official Ilyas Abbasi told AFP villagers had been retrieving body parts at the crash site.
"The plane has crashed in a far-flung village in the mountains. One has to travel for more than four kilometres on foot to reach the spot," he said.
"Villagers on site told us that the plane was first on fire and now smoke is rising from the wreckage."
Junaid Jamshed, one of the country's best-known pop stars, is among the dead. Source: EPA
In a career change, Jamshed has since worked as Muslim cleric. Source: YouTube
Irfan Elahi, the government's Aviation Secretary, told media the plane suffered engine problems but it was too early to determine the cause of the accident.
"It is premature to say anything at the moment, but we know that the aircraft had engine problems," he told Geo News.
According to the website AirLive, the 10-year-old ATR-42 aircraft had been in an accident in 2009 while reports in Pakistan suggest it was afflicted by engine problems.
PIA said the plane was carrying 48 passengers, including five crew members and a ground engineer. But Sohail Ahmed, a PIA official in Chitral, said there were 41 people on board, while the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) put the number at 47.
More than 30 bodies have been recovered. Source: AP
Pakistani volunteers move remains of plane crash victims to a mortuary at a hospital, in Abbottabad. Source: AP
The military said it had sent in troops and helicopters.
Junaid Jamshed, a well-known Pakistani pop star turned evangelical Muslim cleric, was on board, according to Ahmed, the PIA official in Chitral.
Jamshed, a singer in one of Pakistan's first successful rock bands in the 1990s, abandoned his singing career to join the Tableeghi Jamaat group, which travels across Pakistan and abroad preaching about Islam.
There were up to 48 people travelling on the plane. Source: AP
Members of a civil society group hold candles during a vigil for the victims of a plane crash, in Multan. Source: AP
According to the flight manifest, there were three people on board with foreign names. One passenger has been confirmed as a Chinese national while the other two have not been named.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said information provided by PIA "to date does not suggest that any Australians were involved in the incident".
"The Australian High Commission in Islamabad is liaising with local authorities to confirm this," a spokesperson told Yahoo7.
Plane crashes are not uncommon in Pakistan and safety standards are often criticised.
PIA has also suffered major disasters in the past.
