ISLAMABAD – Two Sky Marshals of the Airports Security Force (ASF) also died in the flight PK-661 carrying 47 people on-board that crashed near Havelian city of Abbottabad district on Wednesday.
Sky Marshals are undercover commandos from Sky Marshals Cell of the force who usually travel in flights, (armed with concealed weapons) disguised as passengers for protection of people and aircraft against hijacking or other security threats.
Renowned preacher Junaid Jamshed and his family also died in a plane crash.
The singer turned entrepreneur, along with his wife Nahya Junaid and their three children, was in Chitral for a Tablieeghi congregation.
Flight PK-661 “lost contact with the control tower on its way from Chitral to Islamabad a short while ago,” the airline said in a statement.
The flight, PK 661, was traveling to Islamabad, the capital, from Chitral, a northern tourist destination near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, when it crashed, said Saeed Wazir, the deputy inspector general of police in Abbottabad district.
According to a spokesperson for the Commissioner’s office in Hazara Division, 42 bodies have been recovered from the plane’s wreckage, which had scattered over several kilometres. The Inter-Services Public Relations said around 500 army personnel were taking part in the operation to recover the bodies and any survivors, but witnesses on the crash site said there were unlikely to be any survivors.
