Black box of ill-fated Pakistani aircraft which killed 97 people found

The black box of the ill-fated Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-8303 which was flying from Lahore to Karachi when it went down near a residential area has been found.

This was revealed by the airline operators who informed that flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were recovered from the site of the plane crash that killed at least 97 passengers and crew members.

“The black box had been found late yesterday, we are handing it over to the inquiry board,” PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan said on Saturday, clarifying both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were located.

According to reports, the Airbus A320, which had 99 people aboard, crashed into a crowded residential district of the southern city in Pakistan after twice trying to land at the airport.

The country’s civil aviation agency said in a statement on Friday that the PIA plane was close to landing at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport when it came down among houses.

The incident happened when the plane lost contact with air traffic control just after 2:30pm (09:30 GMT), according to PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez who said there were 91 passengers and seven crew members on board the flight.

It is still unclear if the dead were all passengers or also included people on the ground.