Pakistan plane issued Mayday call before deadly crash

A Pakistani aircraft carrying 47 people issued a Mayday call before losing radar contact and crashing into a mountain, killing everyone on board, authorities said, as they began collecting DNA Thursday to identify victims. The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight smashed into a hillside in the country's north after one of its two turboprop engines failed while travelling from the city of Chitral to the capital Islamabad. It burst into flames upon impact and parts of the wreckage were found hundreds of metres away from the main crash site in Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The pilot of the ATR-42 turboprop aircraft contacted ground authorities after one engine failed and issued a Mayday call at 4:14 pm (1114 GMT), Azam Saigol, the airline's chairman, told a news conference Wednesday in Islamabad. It began descending a minute later before disappearing from radar at 4:16 pm. "This plane was technically sound and was checked in October," he said, adding the captain had flown more than 12,000 hours and the aircraft was nine years old. "Our focus now is to retrieve all the dead bodies," he added, vowing a full investigation. PIA spokesman Danyal Gilani said the aircraft's black box has been recovered but "it will take time to ascertain a reason of the crash". An earlier death toll of 48 has been revised down to 47. Senior aviation officials on Thursday pushed back against allegations that a maintenance lapse had caused the accident. "One engine of the plane failed after its takeoff from Chitral and the pilot informed us about that in his call to the control. The plane, however, was cleared for flight and that's why it flew. Had it not been cleared, it would not fly," said Muhammad Irfan Elahi, a top aviation official. <br/>