AirBlue jet down in Islamabad

[Arslaan]

Personally what I think has happened is that AP-BJB has been requested/requested to go-around. Whilst going around, the visibility got even lower due to the rain and fog. The pilots continue to descend into the hills. When they did eventually see the hills infront of them, it was too late to save the doomed plane.

Such a tradegy. My condolences are with the families of the dead.

Arslaan.

[imranzul]

Been watching ARY on my dinner break showing pics of the Captain ex 747 PIA, First Officer and all cabin crew, what a waste of life young and old - heartfelt condolences to all the passengers families also - very very saddening indeed.

[EinsteinMux]

I was reading accounts of this crash on the CNN website and was horrified at the comments some people were posting. Absolutely horrible. They're turning it into a religion bashing session and they are actually rejoicing at this incident. What kind of people are these?? How can any humane, moral, decent, responsible person say such things?? I flagged all their comments as inappropriate for the moderators attention and wanted to give them an appropriate response but am unable to comment even though I am logged on. I do not advise anyone to go there and read those comments. They will only upset and infuriate you. There are enough sensible people replying to them accordingly.

This has become a regular practice at cnn.com ... comments on most of the news relating any muslim topic usually turns into this.. Allah Hum sub ko hidayat de.

My concerns and sympathy go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident. May the soul of the deceased blessed with "Jannah"

[udaas]

Forget about CNN. There is nothing about the crash on AirBlue website. No list of passengers, no condolences. nothing. They are senseless.

[imiakhtar]

Would anyone be able to post up-to-date approach plates for ISB rwy 30? The only ones I've been able to find are from 2003. Thanks

[Abbas Ali]

Aircraft was attempting to land on runway 12 of Islamabad Airport, according to a CAA official. Runway 12 was active at the time of accident.

Abbas

[irfanjaffry]

Forget about CNN. There is nothing about the crash on AirBlue website. No list of passengers, no condolences. nothing. They are senseless.

There is an official message posted on Airblue website now.

[A300before]

If landing at Islamabad runway 12, does the flight path take you where the plane crashed? I mean was the plane at wrong place or at the right place but wrong altitude?

I havent seen planes landing in this direction going near Margalla, they turn quite a distance away from it, but they do fly very low over densely populated areas of Pindi, its normal.

[imranzul]

Would anyone be able to post up-to-date approach plates for ISB rwy 30? The only ones I've been able to find are from 2003. Thanks

all I could find was - http://www.al-nasir.com/www/PVA/Library ... charts.php also outdated.

Judging by the map on BBC News the Aircraft was quite far away from RWY12 when it went down.

[iqbal]

This is a very tragic incident - my cousin sent me a message saying a plane had crashed - I assumed it was a PIA plane...

The 2003 charts are the latest ones available for OPRN I don't think they have been updated since then.

What doesn't make sense is that the captain flying (who I have met before on a PIA flight from ISB-LON) is very experienced and would know of the low terrain and procedures for "going around" and landing on runway 12.

Lets see how long an official explanation takes to be given.

[Abbas Ali]

According to news reports, Instrument landing System (ILS) is available for runway 30 of Islamabad Airport.

Islamabad Airport's runway 12 is without ILS where ill-fated aircraft was attempting to land, according to news reports.

Initially the aircraft was approaching to land on runway 30 but, apparently following ATC instructions, it climbed to attempt to land on runway 12, according to reports and during that procedure it crashed into Margalla Hills in poor visibility conditions.

Flight Data Recorder (FDR) - commonly known as 'Black Box' - has been recovered from crash site, according to information minister.

Abbas

[TEMOOR]

First of all my condolence for all the passengers who lost their lives in the tragic accident.may Allah give them a place in heaven.

interesting points

1.one major channel said that black box is found and the data in the blackbox says that it was the wind sheer which brought the plane down........ now my question is that even the NTSB takes a couple of days to read the data because the FDR (flight data recorder) has information stored in it in binary numbers.bringing them to the computers and again making the whole flight path takes days.So how can you say that it was a wind sheer.and remember wind sheer pushes the plane down and not away from its original path and the plane wreckage was found way far from its actual flight path.so it cant be a wind sheer.

2.Now the captain.no doubt he was one of the leading captain of Pakistan International Airlines.he got awards and was a well experienced man.but you know why he got retired? he was 60 and thats the age limit for the captains to give their services.now at the age of 60 Airblue hired him.now answer me are the airlines stupid that they retire their experienced captains at 60?they do because at this age the reflexes are not that strong and Airblue hired an old man .so i would say that over here Airblue was wrong.

3.thirdly the plane was flying in a no fly zone area.can you tell me where were the anti aircraft guns?no body knew that the plane was flying over the no fly zone until it collided? this shows that our defence is weak any airplane can come and hit our major buildings and we would never know.at least you should have reacted to this you should have had the info that plane is flying in no flying zone are.

4 .and we will continue making comitties for the investigation.now 5 men comittee.lol see airbus has approached you to help you out but our nation will never say yes to them as most of the secrets of the airplane or the crash would be revealed.NTSB is there to be approached.what will your 5 men do?are they specialist? families of victims want answers and up till now you have never given any report on any of the crashes that took place in Pakistan.


5.and yes stop lying that a lady called and she is still alive and 7 passengers have been saved.people on big post are giving these lame stories.atleast at this point stop lying.
still i pray for all those loved ones who left us,who left pakistan,who left the world.this crash and you all will be remembered by me for ever.may your souls rest in peace.AMEEN!!!

[TAILWIND]

A terrible tragedy, my thoughts and prayers with the victims and their families.

I would like to rephrase Moin's question, no speculating but trying to get my head around this tragedy,

If landing at Islamabad runway 12, does the flight path take you where the plane crashed? I mean was the plane at wrong place or at the right place but wrong altitude?

Relating to geographical features, normally in a circle to land approach the aircraft passes between rawal lake and zero point starts turning left and some where over F-9 park or even before that starts heading towards the runway and over police lines is aligned with rwy 12 for landing.
With going into the causes, indeed the aircraft was far too north in a circle to land approach pattern

[ConnieMan]

My heart goes out to the families, friends and relatives who have lost there lives today in this tragic accident. May Allah save there souls in Jannath and give remaining family members, relatives and friends enough strength and courage to coup up with this tragedy, AMEEN.

This is indeed shocking news that no one wants to see first ting getting up in the morning, but it's harsh reality that we witnessed this today, i would like to ask all members of this site to pls don't start to speculate on the causes at this time of mourning and do leave investigation be dealt with professional investigators as it's a science by itself. I'm sure in next few days we will get good idea about the cause but for now, make duass for the ones who lost there lives today...

[nopy99]

Connie is right. No point speculating at this point and as this is a high profile case of the loss of a jetliner in Pakistani airspace, one can only hope that the investigation team will engage all nessecary resources and come up with a detailed report.

This report should also be placed in the public domain however based on historical secrecy around Multan incident, I doubt that CAA will publish a full public report.