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PIA flight crashes in Multan, all 45 on board dead

The Lahore-bound PIA Fokker plane crashed into a wheat field a few minutes after taking off from the Multan Airport on Monday.

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ISLAMABAD: A Lahore-bound Pakistan International Airlines Fokker plane crashed into a wheat field a few minutes after taking off from the Multan Airport on Monday, killing all 41 passengers and four crew members, besides a girl working in the fields.

According to a spokesman for the international flag carrier in Lahore, Flight PK 688 had left the Multan airport at 12:00 pm for the eastern city of Lahore. However, hardly three minutes after the take off, the plane lost radio contact with the control tower and went down about five miles from the airport in Multan, causing a huge explosion.

According to Mohammed Nadeem, a jeweller who lives near the crash site, the passenger plane was rotating sideways in the air before it hit the electricity wires and then crashed after hitting a wall of an orchard.

According to Hasan Jaferry, a PIA spokesman, the ill fated Flight PK 688, on its way to Lahore before flying on to Islamabad, crashed a few minutes after take-off from Multan airport, with the debris catching fire. He said rescue workers from the privately run Edhi Foundation, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Pakistan Army immediately reached the site of the crash to carry out rescue operation. Jaffery said the plane crashed near a government primary school in the Suraj Miani area. He said the reason for the crash of the twin engine aircraft is unclear, but technical malfunction is one certain line of inquiry.

According to the eye witnesses of the plane crash, they could see the badly burnt and mutilated bodies of the ill fated passengers all around the plane. Many of the burned corpses were charred to the extent to become unidentifiable. 

Asked as to why the PIA was using the outdated Fokker Aircraft, which should have been grounded by now, a senior PIA official said a decision to change entire fleet of Fokker aircraft operated by PIA had already been taken last year and the authorities are in the process of finalising its details like vintage and model, which are yet to be decided.

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