Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-661 carried 48 people including crew and passengers and were all killed when it crashed into a hillside of Islamabad. Renowned singer-songwriter Junaid Jamshed was among the passengers of the said flight that had no survivors.
The small twin-engine plane ATR-42 operated by PIA was flying over the mountainous range of Chitral on Wednesday before the Pakistan plane crashed near the town of Havelian. According to The Guardian, the cause of the crash has not yet been identified, which occurred in a clear daytime and far from the highest peaks of the Hindu Kush mountain range where Chitral is situated.
A civil aviation official had mentioned that before the Pakistan plane crashed, they received a distress call from the pilot reporting that they have an engine failure. Several witnesses on the ground said that the plane quickly plunged out of the sky.
Videos of the crash site, along with other photographs, taken by some locals have surfaced on social media. It purportedly showed fire and debris surrounding the crash site and how grave the damage was. Villagers who surrounded the crash site said that the bodies from the Pakistan plane crash were heavily charred and almost unidentifiable.
Jamshed, 52, who was on board together with his family, was a famous recording artist with an award of Medal of Excellence by the President of Pakistan. However, as unfortunate as it may, Jamshed was identified to be among the dead of the crashed PIA flight PK-661.
In a report by International Business Times, Jamshed was also made known for his apparent criticization of the Prophet Muhammad's wife in a video. He later issued an imploring public apology after the video surfaced on the internet. The occurrence led to an investigation by Pakistani authorities for suspected blasphemy.
