Pakistan airplane crash: All 127 passengers feared dead

A PASSENGER jet with 127 people on board crashed into wheat fields near the Pakistani capital Islamabad as it tried to land in bad weather.

Emergency workers used torches to search among smouldering wreckage for any sign of life at the crash site, which was just a few miles away from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.

The Boeing 737-200 was operated by Bhoja Air, a domestic carrier that has just four planes and only resumed operations last month after suspending them in 2001 due to financial difficulties.

The flight was travelling from the country’s largest city of Karachi to the Pakistani capital, officials said.

Relatives of those on the flight gathered at Karachi and Islamabad airports last night.

One man said that two of the passengers, Sajjad Rizvi and Sania Abbas, were newlyweds flying to Islamabad for their honeymoon.

Pakistan’s defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhar said civil aviation officials had reported it was unlikely anyone had survived.

High winds and heavy rain had lashed parts of the capital during a storm at around the same time as the crash.