Plane crashes shortly after take-off with at least 40 people on board

An aeroplane has crashed with at least 40 people on board after losing contact with ground control.

There are discrepancies over the number of passengers with some news agencies reporting that there were up to 47 souls on the Pakistan International Airlines flight.

‘All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris is scattered,’ Taj Muhammad Khan, a government official based in the Havelian region, told Reuters.

Khan, who was at the site of the crash, added that witnesses told him ‘the aircraft has crashed in a mountainous area, and before it hit the ground it was on fire’.

According to a passenger list there were two children on board, nine women and 31 men, plus crew members.



The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) put the number of people on board at 47 but Sohail Ahmed, a PIA official in Chitral, said there were 41 people on board, including four crew members.

Among those on board was Pakistani pop star Junaid Jamshed who became an evangelical Muslim cleric, according to an airline official.