Pakistani plane crash: 48 feared dead after plane crashes in mountainous north

Pakistani media and residents gather at Benazir Bhutto International Airport following a report that a passenger plane from Chitral, in the country's north, had crashed near a village near the town of Havelian, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. Pakistan International Airlines said that the ATR-42 aircraft carrying around 40 passengers and crew lost touch with the control tower and that all resources are being mobilized. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistani media and residents gather at Benazir Bhutto International Airport following a report that a passenger plane from Chitral, in the country's north, had crashed near a village near the town of Havelian, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. Pakistan International Airlines said that the ATR-42 aircraft carrying around 40 passengers and crew lost touch with the control tower and that all resources are being mobilized. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

A plane carrying 48 people crashed Wednesday in the mountains of northern Pakistan, according to multiple reports.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK-611 was bound for the capitol, Islamabad, from the northern city of Chitral when it lost contact with aviation officials around 4:30 p.m. local time, an airline spokesman said in a statement. The plane went down around 4:45 p.m. in the Havelian area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 45 miles northwest of Islamabad.

The plane had 42 passengers, five crew members and a ground engineer onboard, according to Pakistan International Airlines.

"PIA is doing everything possible to help the families of passengers and crew members," the airliner said in a news release.

Government officials warned that there were likely no survivors. Pakistan’s interior ministry sent a team to the scene of the crash, including experts in identifying bodies through DNA tests, according to The Associated Press.

"All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris is scattered," Havelian-based government official Taj Muhammad Khan told Reuters.

Witnesses told Khan and other local officials that the plane appeared to be on fire before it crashed.

"A plane has crashed and locals told us that it is on fire," Saeed Wazir, a senior local police official, told AFP. "Police and rescue officials are on the way but have yet not reached on site."

Images shared on state-run television and social media showed the fiery wreckage on a mountain slope.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, although Irfan Elahi, the government's aviation secretary, told reporters that the plane had engine problems.