Pakistan plane carrying up to 47 people crashes near Abottabad; ‘survivors unlikely’

A government official has said that there are unlikely to be any survivors from a Pakistani aircraft carrying up to 47 passengers that crashed near Abbottabad.
According to Pakistan International Airlines, Flight PK 116 lost contact with the control tower en route from the northern region of Chitral to the capital, Islamabad. Geo News and Dawn News TV stations, which cited civil aviation sources, said that the plane lost contact with the CAA at around 4.30 p.m. (1130 GMT).
The plane crashed in the Havelian area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 125 km (77 miles) north of Islamabad.
According to a government official based in the region, eyewitnesses had told him that “the aircraft has crashed in a mountainous area and before it hit the ground it was on fire.” He also told reporters: “All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris is scattered.”
Among the passengers on board was a well-known Pakistani pop star turned evangelical cleric Junaid Jamshed, who had been a singer in one of Pakistan’s first major rock bands in the 1990s.

As evidenced from the flight manifest, there were also several people with foreign names.

Source: Reuters