Plane Carrying 98 People Crashes Into Neighborhood in Pakistan’s Biggest City
GONE DOWN
REUTERS
A passenger plane carrying 98 people has crashed into a residential area near Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city. The plane is reported to be an Airbus A320 operated by Pakistan International Airlines that was on its way from Lahore. A spokesman for the national carrier initially said more than 100 people had died in the crash but that figure was later revised. There is no official figure for the number of casualties from the plane or the destroyed houses, though local TV stations reported that three people sitting in the front row of the aircraft survived the impact. Witnesses reportedly said the plane attempted to land two or three times before crashing near Jinnah International Airport. A number of social-media videos purported to be from the site showed black smoke billowing out of what appeared to be the densely populated area known as Model Colony.