Dh17,500 compensation for PIA crash victims' kin

Pakistan International Airlines has announced a compensation of Dh17,500 for the kin of victims of flight PK-661, which crashed on Wednesday on route to Islamabad.

The flight was travelling from Chitral to Islamabad when one of its turboprop engines failed, causing it to crash.

Azam Sehgal, PIA's chairman, told reporters that the pilot for flight PK661 told the control tower at 4:09 p.m. local time that an engine had developed a technical fault and moments later made a "mayday call" shortly before the plane disappeared, Dawn reported.

"We were confident that the plane could land with one working engine," he said, adding: "I think that there was no technical error or human error... obviously there will be a proper investigation."

Emergency was declared at the airport soon after receiving a phone call about the crash.

The call about the plane crash was made by a resident of Batolni village who had witnessed the tragedy, the official said.

He called the Benazir Bhutto International Airport at around 4:35 p.m. and was asked to contact the airport manager as he was the relevant person, he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan mourned the 47 victims of its deadliest plane crash in four years, among them a famed rockstar, two infants and three foreigners, as officials sought to pinpoint the cause of the disaster.

Much of the anguish focused on Junaid Jamshed, the vocalist of Vital Signs, one of Pakistan's first and most successful rock and pop bands of the 1990s, who abandoned his musical career in 2001 to become a travelling evangelist with the Tableeghi Jamaat group.