Sunday, November 28, 2010

Bodies of twelve plane crash victims recovered
* Eight crewmembers, four local labourers among dead

By Atif Raza

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KARACHI: Bodies of 12 victims of the Russian cargo plane were recovered on Sunday, while rescuers remained unable to recover the plane’s black box from the rubble.

According to reports, Russian cargo plane IL-76, Flight number MGCC142 carrying 3.5 tonnes of goods, including oil, and eight foreign crewmembers, reached Karachi from UAE and took off at 1:48am for Khartoum.

Fire erupted in the left engine of the plane, which crashed at 1:49am and hit the under construction buildings known as Naval Heights located in the Navy residential area of PNS Shehbaz.


Colonel Mukhter Butt, the media consultant of the Civil Aviation Authority, said he coul not say anything about the cause of the incident, adding that a committee had been formed under the supervision of Commodore Khawaja Abdul Majeed to probe the matter.

He said that all eight foreign crewmembers and four local labourers sleeping inside the construction building died. Efforts to remove the rubble continued throughout the day and the black box of the plane is yet to be recovered, he added.

Rescuers from various organization and scores of volunteers rushed to the spot and dug out four mutilated bodies within two hours of the incident, while the rest of the eight bodies were recovered in the morning.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shad Ibne Masih said the bodies of 12 victims had been recovered so far and shifted to the hospital for identification. He said one of the passersby, namely Sajjid, sustained injures and was shifted to the Civil Hospital.

He said that rescue work was yet to be completed, while various teams were engaged in removing the rubble.

Police Surgeon Dr Hamid Padhyar, when contacted, said the bodies of three of the labourers were identified as Shahid, Khuda Bux and Ejaz.

Dr Padhyar said that the remaining body was completely mutilated and it would be difficult to identify it without DNA testing. He said that samples of the mutilated bodies had been taken out for DNA testing.

Two of the labourers, Ejaz and Shahid, came to Karachi from Multan just a day before the incident. Ejaz, a victim of the plane crash, had just married six months ago and was the youngest among six siblings and came to Karachi to earn a livelihood.

Another victim, Shahid, was the nephew of Ejaz and a father of three children and lived in Krore Pakka near Lodhran. The third one, namely Khuda Bux, was unmarried and belonged to Jalalpur Pirwala area of Southern Punjab. (daily times)

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