Pakistan International ATR-42 crashes killing all 48 on board

Pakistan International Airlines flight PK661, an ATR-42 turboprop aircraft travelling from Chitral to Islamabad, has crashed near the town of Havelian, 30 miles from the country’s capital, Islamabad, killing all 48 on board. The flight manifest showed there were five crew, one ground engineer, and 42 passengers, including one of Pakistan’s most famous singers, Junaid Jamshed, and Asama Warraich, the senior civilian bureaucrat for Chitral.
Kurdish Tanoli, a Havelian police officer is quoted as saying the recovery work was being hampered by a fire at the crash site, as well as by the hilly terrain. “The nearest village to the site is Batolani and is deep in the hills,” he said. “Vehicles and ambulances can only go to Batolani and then it is a 30-minute walk.”
According to an official, Taj Muhammad Khan, “All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris is scattered.” Images of the crash site being circulated on Pakistani TV channels and social media have shown a trail of wreckage which had been engulfed in flames on the mountain side.
So far, no other information is available so it is too early to speculate as to the reason for the crash.
Only last year a military helicopter crashed in a northern valley in Pakistan killing eight people, including Norwegian, Philippine and Indonesian envoys, while in 2010 Pakistan suffered its deadliest accident when an Airblue Airbus A321 crashed near Islamabad, killing all 152 passengers and crew.
The Pakistani Government has vowed to privatise PIA, the national carrier which has consistently been losing money.