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21 dead in Pakistan plane crash
A charter aircraft carrying staff from an Italian oil company crashed minutes after take-off in Pakistan's business hub of Karachi on Friday, killing all 21 people on board.
The pilot of the twin engine turboprop operated by Pakistani charter JS Air reported engine trouble then nose dived near a military depot in a Karachi suburb, in an accident that civil aviation blamed on a technical fault.
"The plane has been totally gutted and there are no survivors," Lieutenant Colonel Noor Alam told reporters near the crash site in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.
Television footage showed the aircraft split in two, the front part totally destroyed and the rear section, marked JS Air, torn off alongside two wheels.
"The cause of crash was a technical fault. The pilot reported that one of the engines was not working. Everyone died. There were no survivors," said Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervaiz George.
The 21 people on board were believed to be mostly Pakistanis, although embassies said they were checking to see whether the dead included foreigners.
