Plane issued Mayday call before deadly crash

A Pakistani aircraft carrying 47 people issued a Mayday call before losing radar contact and crashing into a mountain, killing everyone on board, authorities said, as they began collecting DNA Thursday to identify victims. The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight smashed into a hillside in the country’s north after one of its two turboprop engines […]

A Pakistani aircraft carrying 47 people issued a Mayday call before losing radar contact and crashing into a mountain, killing everyone on board, authorities said, as they began collecting DNA Thursday to identify victims. The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight smashed into a hillside in the country’s north after one of its two turboprop engines failed while travelling from the city of Chitral to the capital Islamabad.
It burst into flames upon impact and parts of the wreckage were found hundreds of metres (yards) away from the main crash site in Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The pilot of the ATR-42 turboprop aircraft contacted ground authorities after one engine failed and issued a Mayday call at 4:14 pm (1114 GMT), Azam Saigol, the airline’s chairman, told a news conference.