AirBlue flight 202, A321, crash near Islamabad

July 28, 2010 · by Miyuru Sandaruwan · in ,

AIR – An AirBlue passenger aircraft with over 150 passengers has impacted Margala Hills near Islamabad and crashed .
Flight ED202 was operating from Karachi ( KHI ) to Istanbul ( IST ). An AirBlue spokesperson confirmed this.

The aircraft was Airbus A321, AP-BJB ( more info below ).
The incident occured at approximately 0943 local time ( 0443Z ) and it was reported that there was bad weather with heavy rainfall at the time.
Reports surface stating the aircraft lost contact with control tower before impacting hills.
An eye witness stated he had seen the aircraft flying very low before impact.

AirBlue crash at Islamabad Pakistani TV/BBC image

islamabad crash site ed202 Photo copyright Twitter user @Rezhasan / Twitpic

Various reports state between 152-159 persons onboard the aircraft including five children. There have been reports of five survivors.
It is believed there was a crew of six.
METARs at the time were
Jul 28 05:00 METAR OPRN 280500Z 09018KT 3500 RA SCT010 SCT030 OVC100 FEW030 25/24 Q1006.9=
Jul 28 04:00 METAR OPRN 280400Z 05016KT 3500 SCT010 SCT030 BKN100 FEW030TCU 29/24 1006.7=

AirBlue AP-BJB AP-BJB, Copyrighted photo

AirBlue operated a fleet of five Airbus aircraft consisting of two A319s and three A321s. AP-BJB, MSN 1218 was an aircraft built in 2000 . It was originally delivered to Aero Lloyd and was taken delivery by AirBlue in 2006.
According to Airbus, the aircraft had accumulated about 34,000 flight hours and around 13,500 cycles.
AP-BJB was subject of a lightning strike at Trabzon last year, however this is considered as unlikely to be related.
Following the incident, AirBlue has cancelled all of its flights which were due today.
This is the first fatal crash of an A321 and the second write off ( the first having caused by a ground accident ).
This article will be updated.

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