Karachi: A 13-year-old girl was critically wounded on the ground when the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crashed in a crowded neighbourhood here. The girl has succumbed to her burn injuries. It took the death toll in the PIA crash to 98, according to a media report Tuesday.
Crash details
The PIA flight PK-8303 from Lahore crashed here May 22 with 99 people on board. Ninety-seven passengers and crew of the aircraft were killed when the plane crashed into houses in the Jinnah Garden area. Two persons on board survived miraculously.
1st casualty on ground
Naheeda Khaskheli became Monday the first casualty on the ground, the ‘Dawn’ newspaper reported Tuesday. Naheeda worked as a domestic house help along with her two sisters – 20-year-old Aziza and 18-year-old Mahira – in Model Colony. They were busy doing their regular duties of cleaning a house when the airliner crashed. It left all the girls badly injured.
Aziza and Mahira suffered over 70 per cent burns. Naheeda suffered 59 per cent burns. All three girls had been under treatment at the burn’s ward of Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital here.
Probe team returns to France
Meanwhile, a team of Airbus experts probing the May 22 plane crash returned Monday to France. They took with them the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). In France the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) will begin decoding them Tuesday.
The French officials will open and download information from FDR and CVR if recording chips are intact inside crash-resistant shells.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in a statement Monday that bodies of 87 victims had been identified. They have been handed over to their relatives.
PTI