Pakistani Flight Crashes With 42 on Board

A Pakistan International Airlines flight with 42 passengers and six crew, including a famous pop singer headed to Islamabad from Chitral has crashed into a mountain after losing contact with the control tower shortly after takeoff, according to Danyal Gillani, a spokesperson for the airline.

The flight, PK 661, was traveling from Chitral, a northern tourist destination near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, to Islamabad, the capital, when it crashed, said Saeed Wazir, the deputy inspector general of police in Abbottabad District.

“It is a hilly area,” Mr. Wazir said. “The police are on their way.”

“But what locals from the crash scene are telling us, the passengers are all burned,” he said. “Smoke and fire are billowing from the debris. No one can go near it. People are helpless.”

Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane at 4:30 p.m. local time. They believe the plane crashed 12 minutes later, Gillani told ABC News.

Controllers reported that they had received a distress signal from the pilot.

An airline official told the wreckage of the flight has been found and that police have recovered some bodies. It is unclear if there are any survivors.

A senior government official in Peshawar said that three foreigners, including an Australian, a Chinese and a Korean, were among the passengers.

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