Pakistani passenger jet with 127 on board crashes

Published 10:34 am Friday, April 20, 2012

ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani passenger jet with 127 people on board crashed Friday as it was landing in bad weather at an airport near the capital, Islamabad, officials said.

The Bhoja Air jet went down in farmland just a few kilometers (miles) away from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhar said.

There was no immediate word on any survivors.

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A violent rain and wind storm was lashing parts of the capital around the same time as the crash.

The aircraft was traveling from the country’s largest city of Karachi to the Pakistani capital when it crashed, officials said.

“We can see the plane’s wreckage is on fire and we are trying to extinguish it,” emergency official Saifur Rehman told Geo TV from the scene. “We are looking for survivors.”