17 die as Pak army plane crashes into residential area

Rawalpindi, Jul 30: Seventeen people were killed when a small military plane crashed into a residential area in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi early Tuesday, officials told AFP, in the latest disaster to hit the country's troubled aviation sector.

The plane crashed into a poor village near an upscale neighbourhood in the garrison city that is home to the army's headquarters, creating a fireball that lit up the night sky and terrified residents.

"We have received 17 dead bodies including 12 civilians and five crew members," said local rescue spokesman Farooq Butt, adding that a further 12 people had been injured in the accident near the capital Islamabad.

One resident told news agency that the crash happened around 2 am.

"I woke to the sound of a huge explosion. I stepped out of my house and saw huge flames and we rushed to the site," said Mohammad Sadiq.

"People were screaming. We tried to help them but the flames were too high and the fire too intense, so we could not do anything. The dead includes seven members of one family and most of them were burned to death."

Another resident Ghulam Khan said he heard the plane as it buzzed over his house, adding the aircraft appeared to be on fire before it crashed.

"The sound was so scary," he added.

The military's information wing said the plane was on a routine training mission when the accident occurred, adding that rescue officials had extinguished the fire caused by the crash and moved the injured to a local hospital.

An AFP reporter at the scene said smoke was still rising from the wreckage and destroyed homes, while pieces of the plane were visible on a nearby roof.

Rescue workers could be seen combing through the smouldering site, gathering debris and inspecting the scene while ambulances swarmed the area.

Military officials had cordoned off the crash site while a crowd of residents stood nearby, some of them sobbing.

Pakistan has a chequered aviation safety record, with frequent plane and helicopter crashes over the years.

In 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames after one of its two turboprop engines failed while travelling from remote northern Pakistan to Islamabad, killing more than 40 people.

The deadliest air disaster on Pakistani soil was in 2010, when an Airbus 321 operated by private airline Airblue and flying from Karachi crashed into the hills outside Islamabad while coming into land, killing all 152 on board.