Tragic day Passenger Plane Crashes in Pakistan

A passenger jet with more than 127 people on board crashed into wheat fields Friday as it was trying to land in a thunder storm at an airport near the capital Islamabad. The Boeing 737 carrying 127 passengers and crew from Karachi was destined for Islamabad. A violent rain, wind and thunder storm was lashing the capital at the time of the crash, which occurred about 6:40 p.m. local time. The aircraft was a Boeing 737-200 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 traveling from the country s largest city of Karachi to the Pakistani capital, officials said. It was the airline s first evening flight from Karachi, according to a Bhoja Air official. Relatives of those on the flight thronged the airline s counters at Karachi and Islamabad airports, crying. An airport source said that flight number B4-213 of Bhoja Airline was due to land at Islamabad airport at 6:50 pm (1350 GMT) but lost contact with the control tower at 6:40 pm and crashed shortly afterwards before reaching the runway. Bhoja had been grounded in 2000 by the Civil Aviation Authorities amid financial difficulties, the reports said. The worst aviation tragedy on Pakistani soil came in July 2010 when an Airbus 321 passenger jet operated by the private airline Airblue crashed into hills overlooking Islamabad while coming in to land after a flight from Karachi. All 152 people on board were killed in the accident, which occurred amid heavy rain and poor visibility. The deadliest civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet came in 1992 when a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on its approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, killing 167 people.