ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – At least 41 people are confirmed to have been killed in a plane crash in a residential area of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) chief executive said on Friday.

The Airbus jet with 99 people on board crashed while approaching the airport. Two passengers are known to have survived.

“Forty-one dead are confirmed in the plane crash,” CEO Arshad Malik told a news conference.

He said Pakistan’s independent safety investigations agency would inquire into the crash.

The pilot of a crashed Pakistan International Airlines jet sent a Mayday 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.

Reuters
Photo Marcel van Leeuwen