Only two survived the crash- the chief executive of the Bank of Punjab and a young engineer.
The Karachi-bound flight from Lahore had been seconds away from landing at the Karachi airport when it crashed in the residential Jinnah Garden area near Model Colony in Malir, right outside the airport's boundary wall.
Ninety-nine were aboard the plane when it crashed into a narrow residential street, dealing significant damage to houses in a densely populated area. Thankfully, there were no deaths on the ground.
According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), 25 houses in Model Colony, the site of the crash, had been cleared while a search and rescue operation was still underway. The residents had been accommodated at various places with the assistance of the civil administration, it added.
The Sindh Health Department confirmed that 66 bodies had been shifted to Jinnah Hospital, of which 20 bodies were of women and 43 of men. Three bodies of children had also been brought to the hospital.
The provincial health department said 50 bodies at the hospital were yet to be identified, while 16 bodies had been identified.
The health department further said that the remaining 31 bodies had been moved to Civil Hospital, of which six bodies were of women and 25 of men. It said 28 of bodies kept at the hospital have yet to be identified while the process of identification had been completed for three.
Separately, rescue officials said some bodies had later been shifted from the Civil and Jinnah Hospitals to an Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth and the Chhipa morgue at FTC.
“DNA samples were taken from the bodies before being shifted to the morgues,” officials said, adding that 96 bodies were at the morgues, while one had been handed over to the deceased's relatives.
Police said four bodies at the Jinnah Hospital have been released to relatives of deceased. Authorities added that at the moment 40 bodies were in cold storage at an Edhi morgue while 35 were in an Edhi cold storage.
“Three bodies at Edhi morgue have been released after being identified, while six have been released from the Chippa morgue,” authorities said, adding till now 12 bodies have been handed to the deceased’s victims after being identified.
Mayday distress signal sounded
The pilot sent a Mayday distress call and told controllers the aircraft had lost power from both its engines on its second attempt to land, according to a recording posted on monitoring website liveatc.net.
After the aircraft reportedly called off an earlier attempt to land and went around for a second attempt, a controller radioed the pilot of flight 8303 that he appeared to be turning left, suggesting he was off-course.
The pilot replied, "We are returning back, sir, we have lost engines," and the controller cleared the plane to land on either of Karachi airport's two West-Southwest-facing runways.
Twelve seconds later the pilot called "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" and was again cleared to use either runway. There was no further communication from the aircraft, reported to be an Airbus A320, according to the audio from liveatc.net, a respected source for in-flight recordings.
PIA chief executive Air Marshal Arshad Malik confirmed that the pilot, in his last words, had said that there was a technical fault with the aircraft. "The pilot was told that both runways were ready for him to land. However, the pilot decided to do a go-around. Why did he do that, due to what technical reason, that we will find out," he said, before hopping on a plane to Karachi.
Surviving passengers
Bank of Punjab (BOP) chief executive Zafar Masud miraculously survived the incident and is one of the only two surviving passengers.
Masud was taken to a hospital after being recovered from the crash site. He is said to be stable in stable condition.
The other passenger has been identified as Mohammad Zubair, who managed to exit the aircraft.
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