Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane crashes in Karachi

Did a quick search and couldn't see this mentioned in any other section yet?

Seems a Pakistani Airways A320 has gone down in a residential area of Karachi? Local Mayor is claiming all onboard are dead. And Sky News are showing a clip claimed to be from the pilots saying they have lost engines twitter.com...

There were claims earlier that the aircraft had tried and failed to land several times. But other claims that the aircraft had circled several times so details are still murky at the moment? Some Images here on the Suns website. www.thesun.co.uk...

a reply to: solidshot

May God rest there soul's, there will many grieving family's today.

a reply to: solidshot
Peace be with those that perished and their families. Very sad. I just heard about this from a colleague and haven't had a chance to read up on it.

I've been to the Karachi airport and it's nothing exceptional in terms of approach.

Claims now that two may have survived the crash.

apnews.com...

originally posted by: solidshot
Claims now that two may have survived the crash.

apnews.com...

The article says they just resumed flights earlier this week. I wonder if losing an engine has to do with parking an aircraft for a long period of time. Let's hope this isn't a trend as airlines start back up.

Registration was AP-BLD (MSN 2274). Delivered new to China Eastern Airlines in September 2004, and to PIA in October 2014. They had made one landing attempt, and were attempting a go around on their second.

ETA- The pilots reported nose gear problems on the first landing attempt.

a reply to: solidshot

Some video here,





Looks like a Karachi suburb.

RIP. Apparently they've tried to go for a belly landing but lost both engines on approach. A witness on the ground stated that the plane went silent seconds before the crash.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Talk about a bad day. Bum nose gear and engine problems at the same time. My sympathy to the family and friends of all involved, including those working the crash site.

Tweet here claiming they had tried a belly landing and that the rat had been deployed in the image? twitter.com...

Geezus!

Sounding like they actually attempted a gear-up landing, touched down, and then aborted the landing and attempted a climb out to go around!

If so, that's pretty close to as insane as you can get!

Here's a pic after the gearless belly landing attempt. You can see the damage to both engines.



CCTV footage of crash.
m.youtube.com...

Reports indicating they may have made more than one previous attempt at landing. Eyewitness's reporting fire / smoke from one engine.

source

Video of the crash looks like a stall, rapid descent with a slight wing drop before disappearing behind building.

RAT deployed (no power). Definitely appears to be damage/charring to both engine nacelles in photo.

Unbelievable!

According to a social media conversation, the person claiming to be the one that took the picture of them with the RAT deployed, they suffered a double bird strike.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wait? So the engines didn't come off or quit working after scraping the asphalt?


Edit: updated the pic I linked. But the bird is much closer to the camera.

What are the odds of losing both engines due to fire?
Does it point to a maintenance issue or an issue with the fuel?
OH, I see now that the scorching of the engines may have been due to landing attempt with gear up.
Ok, possiible double bird strike... maybe the engines were scorched because of that.

a reply to: butcherguy

US Airways Flight 1549 lost both due to geese.

a reply to: Bigburgh

The word going around is that only the nose gear had a problem on their first attempt. If they were deliberately attempting a gear up landing, and got to the point the engines were on the runway, I don't see them going around. If the mains collapsed as they landed, they probably would have pancaked onto the runway and couldn't go around.

It's not impossible, but I'd say it's more likely that was from a bird strike than runway impact.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Bigburgh

The word going around is that only the nose gear had a problem on their first attempt. If they were deliberately attempting a gear up landing, and got to the point the engines were on the runway, I don't see them going around. If the mains collapsed as they landed, they probably would have pancaked onto the runway and couldn't go around.

It's not impossible, but I'd say it's more likely that was from a bird strike than runway impact.

Could they have had a bird strike on one engine and Fodded out the other on the missed belly landing?