Airblue Flight 202

Airblue Flight 202 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Karachi to Islamabad. On 28 July 2010, the Airbus A321 jet airliner serving the flight crashed into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, while approaching Benazir Bhutto International Airport. All 146 passengers and 6 crew members on board were killed. The crash 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 concluded that the crash of the two-hour flight was caused by the captain's incorrect flight-control input. Captain Pervez-Iqbal Chaudhry had spent the first hour of the flight belittling first officer Muntajib-ud-Din Ahmed who was subsequently reluctant to challenge the captain's multiple piloting mistakes and effectively ceased any meaningful crew resource management. Chaudhry also ignored multiple automated systems warning of the impending crash.

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 and a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight had taken three go-arounds 30 minutes earlier.

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 5 nmi, until lining up with runway 12, which faces toward the southeast. The aircraft crashed into mountains outside the 5 nmi radius, about 8 nmi north of the airport, facing almost due west, before it could line up for the runway 12 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 2600 ft as it approached Islamabad, but went back up to 3000 ft before eventually crashing. The altitude of 2600 ft was above the safe minimum descent altitude (2510 ft above sea level, or 852 ft above ground level) had the aircraft remained within the 5 nmi 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 collided into the highest mountain, emitting an instant billow of blue fire and black smoke.

The aircraft wreckage 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 090° at 18 kn. Visibility 3500 m, rain, scattered clouds at 1000 ft, few clouds at 3000 ft overcast at 10000 ft. Temperature 25 C, dewpoint 24 C. QNH 1006.9 hPa.