Bhoja air crash was a disaster in the air

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (eTN) – The crash of flight number B4-213 KHI-ISB on April 20 is one of three fatal air crashes that happened in South Asia during the last 5 years. An update follows at the end of this article.

Bhoja Air restarted its service today after a pause of almost a decade and its first flight – a Boeing 737 – crashed, apparently due to bad weather.

On July 28, 2010, all 152 passengers onboard Airbus A321 were killed when the aircraft crashed into a hillside outside Islamabad as it came in to land in wet and cloudy conditions. This was also a private airline, namely Air Blue.

On May 22, 2010, an Air India Boeing 737 crashed on landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, killing all 158 aboard.

On July 15, 2009, an Iranian Tupolev – a 154 passenger jet – crashed on a flight between the Armenian capital of Yerevan and Tehran, killing 168 passengers onboard.

Civil Aviation Authorities confirmed that the pilot of the ill-fated plane was informed about bad weather, and he had an option to go back to Lahore airport, because a hail storm had hit the landing strips of Islamabad airport. However, sources claimed the pilot decided to reach Islamabad airport instead of going back towards Lahore, mainly because it was the first flight of Bhoja Air after a pause of suspension of services for a decade, so there might be a possibility that pilot did not want a bad name for the company.

A cameraman, Shabir Hussian, who reached the crash site right after the incident, said that eye witnesses claimed that it was a fireball in the sky and then pieces of airplane rained all over the area, indicating the plane was either hit by lighting or had a fire due to other reasons. It was disaster that occured in the air instead of a crash on the ground.

The list of passengers has been released by the airline as follows:

PASSENGER LIST

Seat No. – PAX Name
1 – ABBAS ALI/MR
2 – ABIDA JAVED MALIK/MRS
3 – ADEEL CHUGHTAI/MR
4 – AIMAN IKRAM/MS
5 – ALTAMASH KHAN/MR
6 – ANISA AKBAR /MRS
7 – ANUM HUSSAIN/MS
8 – ASIF AFTAB/MR
9 – ASMAA AHMAD/MRS
10 – ATA UR REHMAN/MR
11 – AZIZ UR REHMAN/MR
12 – BAQIR MEHDI /MR
13 – BIBI HAMEEDA/MRS
14 – CHAND BABOO/MR
15 – CHD FAIQ/CHD
16 – DILSHAD KAMAAL/MRS
17 – DR ABDUL QADIR/MR
18 – DR ASAD ULLAH/MR
19 – FAHIRA LAIQ /MRS
20 – FARAH SAJID/MRS
21 – FATIMA /INF
22 – FEHMEEDA ZUBAIR/MRS
23 – GHULAM FAROOQ QASMI/MR
24 – GHULAM REHMAN/MR
25 – GUL /MR
26 – GUL FARAZ/MR
27 – GUL SHARIF JANA/MRS
28 – GUL ZAMAN/MR
29 – HABIB UR REHMAN/MR
30 – HAFEEZ UR REHMAN/MR
31 – HAFSA CHUGHTAI/CHD
32 – HAFSA SHAHID/MRS
33 – HALEEMA SADIA/MRS
34 – HAMIDA KHADIMA BALOCH/MRS
35 – HARIS HARIS/MR
36 – HUSUN NISA/MRS
37 – IMRAN WAHEED/MR
38 – IRFAN ALI/MR
39 – JAVED AKHTAR MALIK/MR
40 – JAVED IQBAL /MR
41 – KALO ABBASI /MR
42 – KHAWAJA RAZIUDDIN/MR
43 – LIAQUAT ALI/MR
44 – MASOODA BEGUM/MRS
45 – MISHIR JAAN/MRS
46 – MOHAMMAD ATIQUE KHAN/MR
47 – MOHAMMAD LATIF/MRS
48 – MOHAMMAD LATIF/MR
49 – MOIZ SADIQ/INF
50 – MRS KHALIDA/MRS
51 – MS YUMNA/CHD
52 – MUHAMMAD ABDUL HAFEEZ/MR
53 – MUHAMMAD ANWAR KHAN/MR
54 – MUHAMMAD ASHFAQ KHAN/MR
55 – MUHAMMAD FAROOQ/MR
56 – MUHAMMAD IRFAN/MR
57 – MUHAMMAD IRFAN/MR
58 – MUHAMMAD QASIM/MR
59 – MUHAMMAD SHAHNAWAZ/MR
60 – MUHAMMAD SOHAIL/MR
61 – MUHAMMAD YOUNUS/MR
62 – MUHAMMADA ABDULLAH/MR
63 – MUJTABA SIYAL/MR
64 – MUKHAN JAN/MRS
65 – MUNAWAR SUTANA/MRS
66 – MUSARRAT SHAHEEN/MRS
67 – NADIR KHAN FAZALDAD/MR
68 – NASREEN /MRS
69 – NAZNEEN /MRS
70 – NIGHAT MEHDI /MRS
71 – NIHAL UDDIN ALVI/MR
72 – NISAR AHMED/MR
73 – NUZHAT /MRS
74 – QAMAR AFTAB/MR
75 – QARI MUHAMMAD ABDUL RAHMAN/MR
76 – RAKH SHANDA/MRS
77 – RAKSHANDA /MRS
78 – RASHIDA REHMAN/MRS
79 – RAZA ALI KHAN FEROZ/MR
80 – REE HAN/INF
81 – S M SAUD ISHAQ/MR
82 – SABA AMBER/MS
83 – SADAF BALOCH/MS
84 – SADAF TANVEER /MRS
85 – SAEED KHAN/MR
86 – SAEEDA AKHTAR/MRS
87 – SANIA ABBAS/MRS
88 – SARAH CHUGHTAI/CHD
89 – SARDAR SHAH/MR
90 – SARWAT MUMTAZ/MRS
91 – SHABBIR AHMED AWAN/MR
92 – SHAHID IQBAL/MR
93 – SHAMIMA ABDULLAH/MRS
94 – SHAZIA BALOCH/MS
95 – SO-BIA UBAID/MRS
96 – SULEIMAN CHUGHTAI/CHD
97 – SUMAIYAH CHUGHTAI/CHD
98 – SYED MUHAMMAD AMJAD/MR
99 – SYED MUHAMMAD RIZWAN/MR
100 – SYED OMAR ALI/MR
101 – SYED SAJJAD ALI RIZVI/MR
102 – SYEDA AMJAD SHAHEEN/MRS
103 – SYEDA RIZWAN SUFIA/MRS
104 – TABBASUM SARWAT/MRS
105 – TABIA REHMAN/INF
106 – TALAT MAHMOOD QURESHI/MR
107 – TANVEER JAN /MR
108 – TARIQ MEHMOOD/MR
109 – TASADDUQ MAHMOOD/MR
110 – TASNEEM BEGUM /MRS
111 – TUBA SHEWAR/MS
112 – USMAN RAHIM/MR
113 – USMAN RASHEED/MR
114 – UZMA INAM/MRS
115 – WAJAT ABBASI /MRS
116 – WAJI HA/INF
117 – YASMIN MUHAMMAD SULTAN/MRS
118 – ZAHEER SHAH/MR
119 – ZAHIDA AZIZ/MRS
120 – ZAIB UN NISA/MS
121 – ZUHRA BEGUM/MRS

UPDATE:

The government of Pakistan has constituted an Investigative Team headed by Group Mujahidul Islam to investigate the reasons that caused the disaster of the Bhoja Air plane.

Aviation experts believed that disaster was caused due to Cumulonimbus (Cb) clouds, when the pilot of the ill-fated plane apparently tried to fly under these clouds that were already charged, and there was a hail storm under them.

Cumulonimbus clouds are towering vertical clouds (family D2) that are very tall, dense, and involved in thunderstorms and other inclement weather. Cumulonimbus clouds originate from atmospheric instability. These clouds can form alone, in clusters, or along a cold front in a squall line. They can create lightning and other dangerous weather.

Cumulonimbus clouds form from cumulus clouds and can further develop into a supercell – a severe thunderstorm with special features.

Unconfirmed reports identify the aircraft as Ba oeing 737-200, registration AP-BKC. According to Flightglobal’s Ascend Online database, the 737-200 advanced aircraft was built in 1984. It was powered by Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15A engines and had been operated by Bhoja Air, which originally started operations on November 7 1993. The airline started with services on domestic routes with inaugural flights between Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta, utilizing a dry lease Boeing 737-200 aircraft. It commenced its international operations on January 24.

In 1998, a flight was launched between Karachi and Dubai, services were suspended in 2001 due to financial crisis. When eTN tried to contact Mr. Farook Omar Bhoja, Chairman of Bhoja Air, there was no response from his office.

Teams have reached three hospitals of Islamabad where bodies of the deceased victims are arriving to have their DNA tested for identification, as the bodies are beyond recognition.