Air Blue plane crash in Islamabad

Indeed it is a sad start to the day in Pakistan today when AirBlue flight got crashed into Margalla hills Islamabad having 150+ people on board including crew members. The plane had reportedly lost contact with the control tower during the crash probably because of thick fog and heavy rainfall in Islamabad.

The flight was asked to delay landing at the Islamabad airport as the airport was busy. Another version of the media report says the plane was re-routed to Lahore due to bad weather at Islamabad. Whether it was an error of judgment by the pilot or lack of proper communication by the control tower, the fateful AirBlue AirBus went down in the dense hillside near Shah Faisal Mosque. The wreckage can be seen in video footage in news bulletins with fierce fire raging and smoke emitting from the crash site possibly from an explosion in fuel tanks.

There are confusions about the route of flight too. Some news reports claim that the plane was coming from Turkey to Islamabad via Karachi, while some say that it a scheduled Karachi Islamabad flight. According to Karachi airport website the flight ABQ-202 was bound for Islamabad from Karachi and took off at 7:30 am as a regular flight.

Weekly schedule of the flight ABQ 202 as provided by the Karachi Airport website proves the flight was indeed originated from Karachi for Islamabad.

The sad news spread like wild fire through social media this morning as soon as it happens. Facts and figures and hopes and prayers for the survivors were all over the timeline of twitter. Express tribune has done a remarkable job as it updated the news with details of the incident almost every 5 minutes. Real time updates of the crash are still coming as rescue work has begun and there are hopes for the survivors too. Unfortunately, Airblue website has no updates regarding the crash or rescue information for the families of the people on board so far.

Here is how the social media (Twitter) is reporting AirBlue crash updates:

ZareenZ shared a picture of Margalla Hills where the plane is crashed.

Phone numbers for any info on today’s #AirBlue crash in #Islamabad: +92-51-9211223-4. ~ Dr_Afaq

ABQ 202 is “On Time”. #airblue website at at 12:52 pm, July 28,’10; their flight schedule. http://yfrog.com/mmoy2j #islamabad #crash ~ QasimNauman

20 bodies recovered. No survivors /bodies reached PIMS though its been more than 1 & 1/2hr ~ Express 24/7 reporter Sabur Ali Syed #airblue ~ kashaziz

RT @ayeshaesque: Authorities at #Islamabad airport has shut the news channels & switched to entertainment ones #Pakistan #Airblue ~kashaziz

12 people who were supposed to be on the tragic Air Blue flight decided not to travel today for one reason or another #airblue #islamabad. ~ Jehan Ara

Search and rescue operations underway in #islamabad after #pakistan airblue crashes in margalla hills. So far 5 survivors , 5 dead. ~ lyse doucet

Real time Twitter updates related to AirBlue plane crash can be checked here.

Dawn published passenger list of the fateful Airblue ABQ 202.

AirBlue is a six year old private airline operating in Pakistan with low fare offers as compared to PIA. Probably that is why people prefer to fly with them but why the flight operation was not canceled when weather reports are not so good for both Karachi and Islamabad? only Civil aviation authorities could answer that.


19 thoughts on “Air Blue plane crash in Islamabad”

  1. salaam.i m totaly shocked when i heard this news.mujhy sub sy ziaadaaa buraa young girls speacially rubaab.um e habiba & the the young student.yaar i m feeling very bad 4 all of him.allah un sub ko jaanat mai jaghaa dhy (ameen)

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  2. My condolences…Any theories about how / who may have done this… I mean it was flying pretty low and susciptible to attack from ground… was any one important travelling on this flight.. for whose sake, someone preferred killing others too on the flight..

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  3. I agree with both of the above writers. Its just a matter of common sense that it cudnot be a mistake of a pilot something had definately went wrong with plane as the people in islamabad had eye witnessed that wheels of plane were open as it had to land. Why there were opened. Besides these questions. My question is that why are we having so many news channel when they have to eventually do what government asked them to do. Then whats the difference btw PTV news and these GEO, ARY, DAWN etc news channel. Whats their main purpose?? Why they are not raising all these questions?? Their purpose is to just destroy the image of pakistan in all over the world and to give false image to our potential investers and make them run away..
    Today, all of sudden why you people have just ignored this crash as if it doesnot happen.
    For God sake, we need to change our selves , what if we had our relatives in that flight?? or we ourselves were there.??
    If you have given the chance and you have the platform then use it properly. Please learn to value the lives instead of creating hype and getting sponcers.

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  4. serioulsy evn i think that there was something definitly wrong wid the plane coz evn i travelled by the same airline a mnth back and had a pathetic experince. initially the flight was delayed numerous times without us being told the reason then thay declared that there was a fault in the engine which was being repaired then finally when we got on board n the plane took off there were bad sounds lyk a truk roaring thourghout the flight which made all the passengers scared to death n worst of all the plane was moving to and fro as if it was fighting its way through the air. We were constantly being told to remain seated n tie our seatbelts. God only knows how we landed safely in isb. n later whoever i have shared my expirence with, has a story of his own to tell when flying by this airline. thay should be sued for playing with the lives of ppl. i dnt knw wht kind of pathetic discarded planes they use without caring about ppl’s lives…n our governmnt is also to blame in this…they kept lying to everbdy tht 5 passengers have been saved n then thay declared that there are no survivors…thay played wid ppl’z emotions..everbdy must be wishing n praying for tere luved one to be among those survivors n wht was it…it was meagre lie !!! is this wht u call humanity….thay are all liars thay evn lied abt the blak box…first thay accounced that the blak box has been found n its safe n sound n being sent for decoding n thn all of a sudden thay strted sayng that the blak box is being looked for…can u imagine…n whts the use of searching for it thay are never going to reveal what thay found from it…y r thay hiding it…there somethng rong thats y…thay r putting it all on the pilot coz thay knw hes not alive to justify the allegations that r being put up agaisnt him…had there been any survivor than we cud have known the actual story….the rescue teams took hours to reach tere n thn also cudnt do anythn thay wer all standing there confused unable to take any initiative…i seriusly dnt understand that a machine as advanced as an aircraft lacks the facilities of alarms or sensors or beepers on anythng wen reaching close to anythng or coming at a low altitdue…or was it so that air blue sucks so much that all its alarms wer malfunctioning….the managmnt of this particular airline needs to be addressed on this issue wen thay know wht is the condition of tere planes thn how can thay risk the life of so many ppl in this bad weather condition…thay cud hav delayed the flight which is a normal practice for airblue…thay evn risked the lives of tere staff members wen thay dnt care abt the ppl thay r working wid day n nite thn wht can anybdy say…god bless all souls n give tere family members patience to bear the loss…it a very depressing day for all of us indeed n who is to blame??? …mayb tht was wht allah’s will was….

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  5. Yes, all questions you raised are very much curious. I was also on the spot and one of CDA personal confirmed me that they have found black box, even news at 9 on express, it was revealed that black box is found but below the screen it was displaying that black box is not yet found, by Qaira. Also i came to know from one of witnesses that there was very strange sound which he heard that might be one of the engines of the plane was out of order. From another source i heard that it was ordered to captain to take left and keep the 2600 ft altitude but plan was unable to keep the altitude and turned right towards the hills and strike. So these phrases are questionable. Now I pray that this inquiry should not be dumped as of margla towers and marriot hotel in Islamabad.

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  6. Its just amazing that our Govt & information Minister have two versions of Black Box. The first he confirmed that the Black box of the plane was found and at 9pm he say its not found. I was at the spot with a CAA guy who confirmed that the Black Box is found and waiting for the concerned authorities to be handed over, he was communicating with the crash site through his wireless. Everyone is saying that its the Capt’s fault but i believe its not as he was a very senior pilot with around 30000hrs flight experience so given below are my observations:
    1. There was no thunderstorm in Islamabad with normal rain and the mountains were covered with clouds otherwise rest is all clear at certain height so why the pilot didnt follow the route and went towards mountains which is 4 to 5 nautical miles away from the normal round which he needs to take. I cant believe with such experienced pilot he doesnt know where are the mountains and what was the altitude of the plane.
    2. What happen to Aircraft collision avoidance systems which is pre-installed on every plane and atleast you get to know 5 miles before what is coming to you if there is any collusion to happen so it was off or everyone at the cockpit was sleeping.
    3. Islamabad is surrounded by mountains by only two sides and the other directions its all land and no mountains so why the pilot went only towards mountains why not the open sides even he can see where are the clouds and mountains are in Islamabad. Why all the systems at the plane were unable to tell that you are flying low in altitude and there are mountains ahead.
    4. The plane altitude was very low below the required altitude which is also questionable and why the pilot unable to climb the plane.
    5. As PIA flight was directed towards Lahore then why airblue flight was kept there. I believe just to save the cost which means passengers life is not important as compared to cost.
    6. If you see on all the news channels that they went to the homes of the victims but no one went to see the pilot family or no information about them so what they want to hide or to show to the public.
    7. There were many eye witness but none of the them came on the news channels so my question is WHY. One eye witness said that the plane was not flying properly so it means there was some fault in the plane but just to safe Airline the reports are hidden and all the blame is going to the pilot.

    There are many other points but what my opinion says is that there was a fault in the plane and the pilot took the plane towards mountain just to avoid civilians or more deaths in case of crash landing on the land. The black box is also now not found so this means it just vanished after being found means they want to hide information.

    So all of you just think over it what point i had made.

    Links for Black box found at 6pm on Geo news and other channels confirmed by Minister of Information and then at 9pm link from Geo that the Minister denied of any Black box found.

    http://www.geo.tv/7-28-2010/69121.htm
    http://www.geo.tv/7-28-2010/69112.htm

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