Pakistan Plane Crash: Turbulence Turns ‘a Death Knell’

Just before the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight crashed into a densely populated area, the pilot, Mohammad Zubair, had observed a violent jolt and thought it was turbulence. 

However, he warned the passengers about the possible consequences due to troublesome landing. Sadly, moments later, the plane crashed killing 97 people, including the passengers and crew members on the spot. Dozens other were injured during the incident. Md Zubair is one of the just two surviving passengers, who narrated entire miseries to the saddened families and officials. “Only 19 of the bodies have been identified and that most of the bodies were badly burned. While, over a dozen people on the ground were injured, four of them were seriously, and all residents are accounted for”, said the provincial Health Department spokeswoman, Meeran Yousaf.

The incident took place near Jinnah International Airport, in the poor and congested residential area known as Model Colony. The PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafiz Khan said the aircraft was completely destroyed and it heavily damaged at least 18 buildings. “The Airbus A230 was carrying 91 passengers and eight crew members. The only other survivor of the crash was Zafar Masood, a bank executive”, said the Civil Aviation Authority spokesman, Abdul Sattar Kokhar. In a telephone interview from his hospital bed, Zubair, a mechanical engineer, said flight PK8308 had taken off on time from the eastern city of Lahore at 1 p.m. It was a smooth, uneventful flight until the aircraft began its descent near Karachi shortly before 3 p.m.

“All of a sudden the plane jerked violently, once and then again”, said Zubair. The aircraft turned and the pilot's voice came over the intercom. They were experiencing engine trouble and the landing could be ‘troublesome,’ the pilot said. That was the last thing Zubair remembered until he woke up in a scene of chaos.

“I saw so much smoke and fire. I heard people crying, children crying”, he crawled his way out of the smoke and rubble, and was eventually pulled from the ground and rushed into an ambulance. Pakistan had only earlier this week resumed domestic flights ahead of Eid-al Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Many of the passengers aboard the flight were families returning home for the holiday, said Science Minister Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry. Between the coronavirus pandemic and the plane crash, this year has been a “catastrophe”, he said. What is most unfortunate and sad is whole families have died, whole families who were travelling together for the Eid holiday.

Noticeably, entire country has been in a nation-wide lockdown since mid-March because of the coronavirus. As the flights resumed every other seat was left vacant to promote social distancing. Southern Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, is the epicenter of Pakistan's outbreak, with nearly 20,000 of the country’s more than 50,000 cases.