Pakistan plane disaster: Here's why the PIA passenger aircraft crashed

Pakistan International Airlines plane PK-661, which had 47 people on board, crashed on Wednesday due to engine failure, authorities said on Thursday.

All the passengers, including pop singer-turned-Islamic preacher Junaid Jamshed, his wife and deputy commissioner Chitral Osama Warraich, were killed in the incident. Reports state that all the bodies have been sent for DNA tests to identify the victims of the crash. The plane en route to Islamabad from Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province crashed at Saddha Batolni village near Havelian.

Even as investigations are on, the authorities have stated that the probable reason behind the plane crash was that one of its two turboprop engines stopped working mid-route. 

The flight manifest stated that a total of 31 men, nine women, two infants and five crew members were on the ATR-42 aircraft when it crashed. The manifest also said that the aircraft had lost contact with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Islamabad's Benazir International Airport before the crash was discovered.

Soon after the flight took off, the pilot is said to have made the first call to the air traffic control, saying that the plane's left engine was not functioning. The pilot later sounded panicked and alerted authorities saying, "Mayday! Mayday". Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal.

An official from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport also said that some minutes before the plane crashed, the pilot made an emergency call seeking permission for an emergency landing. Soon after his call, the communication system stopped working and the plane disappeared from the radar screen.

"Around 4:15pm the ATC received an emergency call from the pilot who informed them about the engine failure. A few minutes later, a mayday distress call was received from the pilot," PIA chairman Azam Saigol told reporters.

"At the moment, there is no other reason for the plane crash other than the failure of the left engine," he said. He also added that the investigators are searching for the plane's flight data recorders.