AirBlue Airbus A321 crashes at Islamabad

[OO-VCL]

HI,

Just heard a plane crashed @ Islamabad.
No further news but apparently about 150 casualties.
Anybody heard smthg ?

Vince

[Safe-T]

Reportedly Airblue flt 202, an Airbus.
Crashed in poor weather on approach to Islamabad. Towering CB's at 3000 feet:

http://aviation-safety.net/database/rec ... 20100728-0

[continental060]

hello, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38441455/

Plane schould be -AP-BJB- A321-231
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Airblue/ ... 1fdf249270

some witness:

"It was raining. I saw the plane flying very low from the window of my office."

"The plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down."

[sn26567]

A commercial Pakistani Airbus A321 with 152 people on board crashed in bad weather in the forested Margalla hills near the capital, Islamabad.

The jet (registration AP-BJB, MSN1218, IAE engines, first delivered 2000, 34,000 flight hours, 13,500 flights), flying under the colours of private airline AirBlue and leased from ILFC since 2006, lost contact with the control tower of the Islamabad International Airport at 0443 GMT while flying from the southern port city of Karachi (flight ED202).

The plane was carrying 146 passengers and 6 crew. Five bodies had been recovered from the crash site. There are five survivors at this time.

The military sent three helicopters to the site and troops had also been moved there.

Airblue began operations in 2004 with a fleet of Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft (see http://www.airblue.com).

Strangely enough, initial reports said the crashed plane was Pakistan International Airlines PK762, Amsterdam - Istanbul - Islamabad, which was nearly 5 hours behind schedule on Tuesday 27JUL10.

[sn26567]

The death toll rises horrifically in the disaster; it was 45 a short while ago, now police are saying more than 90, according to the Islamabad bureau of Reuters.

Here is a graph from Reuters:

[sn26567]

Earlier reports of 5 survivors were contradicted. All 152 on board died. May they rest in peace!

[sn26567]

Airblue flight ED 202 accident in Islamabad (Issue I)

Airbus regrets to confirm that an Airbus A321 operated by airblue was involved in an accident shortly after 9.45 am local time. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service, Flight ED 202, from Karachi to Islamabad, Pakistan.

The aircraft involved in the accident, registered under AP-BJB, was MSN (Manufacturer Serial Number) 1218, initially delivered from the production line in 2000. The aircraft is leased to airblue in January 2006. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 34,000 flight hours in some 13,500 flights. It was powered by IAE V2533 engines. At this time no further factual information is available.

Airbus is not part of the accident investigation commission but will provide all necessary support to the BEA as well as to the authorities who will be responsible for the accident investigation.

The A321 is a twin-engine single-aisle seating 185 passengers in a standard two-class configuration. The first A321 entered service in January 1994. To date, some 610 A321’s are in service with nearly 70 operators. The entire fleet has accumulated some 10.6 million flight hours in some 5.8 million flights. The A321 is part of the A320 Family which has achieved over 50 million take offs and landings since the first model, the A320, entered commercial service in 1988. Today, more than 4,300 aircraft are in operations to some 310 customers and operators worldwide.

Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed.

The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident of Flight ED 202.

Airbus press release 28 July 2010

[sn26567]

The black boxes ( both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder) have been recovered this Saturday, 31 July, from the tail of the aeroplane.