Chairman Pakistan International Airline (PIA), Muhammad Azam Saigol has confirmed that all the 48 passengers on board an Islamabad-bound flight, PK166, from Chitral have died. 

Addressing a press conference here Wednesday night, he said that there was no technical fault in the plane which was carrying 42 passengers and 6 crew members.

He added that the PIA has purchased the French made passenger plane in 2007 and since then it had been in use which traveled a total of 18,740 hours.

In October 2016, the plane was checked as per routine and there was nothing wrong with it. The PIA Chairman further confirmed that there are no survivors of the plane accident, which crashed near Havelian in Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to passengers list, renowned singer-turned-Naat Khwan Junaid Jamshed was also on-board the plane along with his wife.

On a question he said that a total 11 ATR planes are operational in PIA fleet while world-wide thousands of ATR planes are in use. He said that air travel is still safest as compared with road, train and other means of transportation.

He said that PIA will provide a compensation of Rs 5.5 million to the families of each victim and of which Rs 0.5 million will be for funeral arrangements.

Saigol said that at around 4:15pm the flight captain lost contact with control tower and the captain sated failure of the second engine of the plane.

He said that all the details will be shared after proper investigation, but there was no technical fault in the plane. He said that all the crew members were highly experienced.

According Civil Aviation Authority officials, the ATR-42 turboprop plane with 48 passengers went missing from the radar near the town of Havelian in Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province while it was on its way to Islamabad.

The plane took off from Chitral at around 3:50pm and Pakistan International Airlines said the plane crashed at 1642 local time (1142 GMT) in Havelian, about 125 km north of Islamabad.

On the direction of the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, National Emergency Operation Centre has been activated for co-ordination and assistance from National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) which can be accessed at 051-9205037.

The dead bodies are being evacuated to Ayub Medical Complex Hospital in Abbottabad from there they will be shifted to Islamabad today (Thursday) for handing over them to the heirs.

-Business Recorder