Plane crash in residential area kills 17 in Pakistan

A Pakistani army trainer plane crashed on a residential area early Tuesday in Pakistan's eastern district of Rawalpindi, killing at least 17 people and leaving 12 others injured, local media and the military said.

Pakistani security officials inspect the scene of a military plane crash on the outskirts of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, July 30, 2019. At least 17 people were killed and several others were wounded when a small military plane crashed in a residential area on the outskirts of Rawalpindi. [Photo: EPA via IC/Sohail Shahzad]

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistani army's media wing, said in a statement that the trainer plane of Pakistan Army Aviation was on its routine training mission when it crashed on the outskirts of Rawalpindi city.

All five people on board, including two pilots, died in the crash, said the ISPR.

According to the reports, the training jet crashed on a residential area of Jabbi village and destroyed at least four houses, which caught fire after the plane fell.

The blaze affected an area with a 100-meter radius, but was later put out.

Raja Zafar, a witness, told Xinhua that the plane caught fire in the air at around 2 a.m. local time Tuesday (2100 GMT Monday) and it appeared that the pilot tried to move away from the residential area. But the aircraft still crashed on the residential area which was black at that time with no light on.

Raheem, another witness, told Xinhua on the spot that the plane was descending with a strange sound and it made a circle over the area before crashing.

Yousaf Awan, an eyewitness who entered the core site an hour after the accident, told Xinhua that the plane crashed on a house, half of which completely collapsed, severely damaging adjoining five to six makeshift houses.

Rescue teams, police and security forces rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and injured to hospitals.

An emergency has been declared in all the hospitals in Rawalpindi and in the neighboring capital city Islamabad. Rawalpindi District Emergency Officer Abdur Rehman feared that the death toll might further rise as some of the wounded are in critical condition due to severe burn injuries.

Eyewitness Mehtab said that he saw rescuers uncover the bodies of at least 20 people completely burnt in the fire.

Fire fighters have extinguished the fire and rescue teams are now removing debris of the collapsed houses to find out if there were other people buried underneath, the reports added.

The army media wing has not disclosed the reason for the crash.

Trainer plane accidents have been seen recent years in Pakistan. In June 2018, two pilots of the Pakistan Air Force were killed after their training aircraft crashed in the country's northwest city of Peshawar.

Also in June 2018, a Pakistan Army Aviation's helicopter made a crash landing during a medical mission in the country's southwestern Balochistan province, injuring two crew members.

In October 2017, a trainer plane of the Pakistani army crashed in the country's northwestern tribal area of South Waziristan, injuring one pilot and two officers.