Pakistan Air crash: Was Bhoja aircraft three decades old?

The Bhoja Air plane which crashed near Islamabad in Pakistan, killing all 127 people on board, was nearly three decades old, reported Hindustan Times today. Despite the fact that the Boeing 737-200 was 28 years old, it had been approved to fly by the aviation authorities. The commercial airliner, Bhoja Air 737, on its maiden flight, was descending for landing when it crashed a few miles from Islamabad airport, near Chaklala airbase, Rawalpindi. [caption id=“attachment_283873” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Rescuers sift through wreckage at the crash site. AP”]  [/caption] The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the crash was apparently due to bad weather. Eyewitnesses said the plane was already ablaze when it was descending. Bhoja Air was one of the first private airlines to set up in Pakistan after the country’s skies were opened up beyond the national flag-carrier Pakistan International Airlines in 1993. According to reports, the plane was was struck by lightning, as heavy rain, accompanied by thunder storm and hail was lashing the capital at the time of the crash, which occurred about 6.40 p.m. Pakistan’s interior minister says the owner of an airline company whose jet crashed near the capital has been banned from leaving the country amid an investigation into the deadly accident. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Farooq Bhoja, head of Bhoja Air, had been put on the “exit control list,” meaning he can’t leave Pakistan. The airplane’s flight data recorder (Black Box) has been recovered. According to rescuers, the wreckage area – around one sq km – was scattered with mangled bodies, severed body parts, burnt luggage, shoes, jewellery and parts of the fuselage strewn all over. Saifur Rehman, from a police rescue team, said the plane came down in Hussain Abad village, two miles from the main Islamabad highway. Sources in the CAA said the flight was given clearance to land at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport but it lost contact with the control tower minutes before the crash. “Fire erupted after the crash. The wreckage was on fire, the plane is completely destroyed. We came with teams of firefighters and searchlights and more rescuers are coming,” Rehman told Geo television. The plane fell on top of houses in the village toppling building before hitting the ground, said eyewitnesses, but there were no reports of people in the village dying. Of the 110 bodies recovered, 50 have been sent to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and the remaining bodies sent to two other hospitals in Islamabad, where grieving relatives and authorities were trying to identify the bodies. According to Samaa TV, Bhoja Air and PIA have announced to take at least one relative of each crash victim from Karachi to Islamabad on special flights. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expressed deep sorrow over the tragedy and ordered investigation into the incident, Geo News reported. Bhoja Airlines had reportedly bought over 27-year-old aircraft from Shaheen Airlines after it was scrapped by the latter for its compromised flight-worthiness, Geo News said. Bhoja Airline officials have not commented. Geo News said that Bhoja Air relaunched its domestic operations with a fleet of five 737s in March and was planning to start flights connecting Karachi, Sukkur, Multan, Lahore and Islamabad.