Bhoja Air Flight B-4 213 Crash near Islamabad

Bhoja Air Flight B-4 213, took off from the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on its flight to the Benazir Bhutto International Airport at Islamabad. It was destined to be the last flight for the Boeing 737, carrying 121 passengers and six crew. It crashed in bad weather close to Hussein Abad village near the Pakistani capital Islamabad, last night (April 20, 2012). No survivors were found among the wreckage of the Boeing 737. Police officer Fazle Akbar told AFP that "There is no chance of any survivors. It will be only a miracle. The plane is totally destroyed."

Bhoja Air Flight B-4 213, was due to land at Islamabad at 6.50 p.m. local time. However, contact with Islamabad control tower was lost 10 minutes before and soon the plane had crashed. The website of Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported that parts of Islamabad was being lashed with violent rains and windstorm. It has been suggested that lightning may have caused a fire and subsequent crash of the plane. As the black box of the plane has been found, further details are bound to be revealed in due course.

It has been just six weeks after Bhoja Air had resumed its flights after being grounded by lack of funds in 2000. With a fleet of five Boeing 737s, they had planned to start several domestic flight routes connecting Karachi with Islamabad, Multan and Lahore. In Pakistan, travel is much efficient by air and accidents are relatively rare. The worst accident in Pakistani air transport history inside Pakistan was in 2010 also at Islamabad when an Airbus 321 operated by a private airline Airblue carrying 152 people crashed when coming to land. Coincidentally, it was also coming from Karachi.



References

Khurram Shahzad, "No Hope of Survivors in Pakistan Plane Crash: Police", AFP, April 20, 2012.

"Scores Killed in Pakistan Plane Crash", Al Jazeera, April 20, 2012.

"Plane Crash near Islamabad Kills 127", Dawn.com, April 20, 2012.

Bhoja Air Website, B4-213 KHI-ISB 20-04-2012 List of Passengers.