Airblue Flight 202 was a scheduled Pakistani domestic passenger flight from Karachi to the nation's capital of Islamabad. On 28 July 2010, the Airbus A321-231 jet airliner serving the flight crashed into Margalla Hills, north of Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport, killing all 146 passengers and six crew on board. It is the deadliest air accident to occur in Pakistan to date and the first fatal crash involving an Airbus A321.
Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority stated that the crash was caused by the captain's incorrect flight-control input. The captain's arrogant demeanour during the entire flight caused the first officer to lose his self-esteem, making him less likely to speak up on the captain's mistakes and effectively ceased any meaningful crew resource management due to the toxic work environment.
Accident
The flight left Karachi at 07:41 local time (02:41 UTC). Flight controllers at Benazir Bhutto International Airport lost contact with the aircraft at 09:41 local time (04:41 UTC). Weather conditions at the time were marginal, and the crew of a China Southern airliner had diverted to an alternate airport 30 minutes earlier. The impacts of this rainfall were not limited to the air crash. Pakistan experienced such heavy rains in late July 2010 that the entire nation experienced catastrophic flooding.
The aircraft approached Islamabad from the southeast, following a procedure that required it to fly toward the airport until making visual contact. It was then to fly around the airport to the east and north, keeping within a distance of , until lining up with runway 12, which faces toward the southeast. The aircraft crashed in the mountains outside the radius, about north of the airport, facing almost due west, before it could line up with runway 12 for final approach.
The pilots did not send any emergency signals prior to the crash. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated that the aircraft was at as it approached Islamabad, but went back up to before eventually crashing. The altitude of was above the safe minimum descent altitude ( above sea level, or above ground level) had the aircraft remained within the radius of the airport.
One witness on the ground, who was out walking, stated that the aircraft had "lost balance", and then it went down. Others described the aircraft as being lower than it should have been. One told The New York Times that the aircraft was "flying as low as a four-story building". Someone reported that as the aircraft started to turn, the right side of its front banged into the highest mountain, emitting an instant billow of blue fire and black smoke.
The aircraft was found near the Daman-e-Koh viewing point in the Margalla Hills outside Islamabad. The Los Angeles Times reported that "television footage of the crash site showed smoke and burning debris strewn in a swath cutting through the forest. Rescue helicopters hovered overhead. Fire was visible, and smoke was blowing up from the scene."
The weather conditions 19 minutes after the accident, as detailed by the 05:00 UTC METAR (aviation routine weather observation message) report for Benazir Bhutto International Airport, were: Wind from 90° (east) at . Visibility , rain, scattered clouds at , few clouds at overcast at . Temperature , dewpoint . QNH 1006.9 hPa.
Search and rescue
A local police official stated that he had reports that the aircraft fell into the Margalla Hills area, as smoke was in the area, though they were not able to reach the site due to lack of access. An army helicopter arrived to survey the crash site at 10:30 local time (04:30 UTC), but was not able to land. Aerial inspection at the site did not find any surviving passengers or crews. All 152 people on board were confirmed dead. All hospitals in Islamabad were declared in a state of emergency.
Rescuers who were present at the scene reported that the bodies were mutilated and burnt and that the aircraft was totally destroyed by the impact, with its pieces and parts scattered over a large distance. Some parts were still burning, and the surrounding bushes were also caught on fire by the crash." Rescuers at the crash site reportedly were "digging through the rubble with their bare hands." A senior city government official stated that the rescue operation was "very difficult ... because of the rain. Most of the bodies are charred. We're sending body bags via helicopters."