ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan International Airlines plane carrying 47 people crashed Wednesday on a domestic flight from Chitral to Islamabad, aviation authorities said.

The Islamabad bound flight PK-116 took off at 3:30 pm from Chitral and went missing near Abbottabad before the pilots lost control over the aircraft and contact with control tower around 4:22 pm . Quoting eyewitnesses from the area, Geo New said the plane was seen going down in the mountains. Thick cloud of smoke was also seen billowing from the area.

Junaid Jamshed, former famous Pakistani singer Junaid Jamshed and wife Nahya, were also among the passengers on the ill fated plane. He was in Chitral on a preaching tour.

Civil and military rescue teams have been dispatched to the area to find the whereabouts of the aircraft which was being flown by Captain Saleh Janjua and co-pilot Ahmed Janjua. The pilots gave a mayday (help me) call before disappearing from radar.

"We regret to inform that PIA’s ATR-42 aircraft operating as PK-661, carrying around 40 passengers lost its contact with control tower on its way from Chitral to Islamabad a short while ago," PIA spokesman Danyal Gilani said.
Pakistan´s last major air disaster was in 2015 when a Pakistani military helicopter crashed in a remote northern valley, killing eight people including the Norwegian, Philippine and Indonesian envoys and the wives of Malaysian and Indonesian envoys.

The deadliest crash was in 2010, when an Airbus 321 operated by private airline Airblue and flying from Karachi crashed into hills outside Islamabad while about to land, killing all 152 on board.