A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) commercial airliner Airbus A320, flying from Lahore to Karachi, crashed in a residential area near the Karachi airport on Friday, just a few kilometres away from the landing runway. The fate of all 91 passengers and eight crew members on flight PK-8303 is not known as of now, while rescue operations are underway.
Following is a chronology of major air crashes in Pakistan or involving Pakistani planes:
May 20, 1965
A PIA Boeing 707 crashes on its inaugural flight while attempting to land at Cairo airport, killing 124 people.
August 6, 1970
A PIA Fokker F27 turboprop aircraft crashes while attempting to take off from Islamabad in a thunderstorm, killing all 30 people on board.
December 8, 1972
A PIA Fokker F27 crashes in Rawalpindi. All 26 people on board are killed.
November 26, 1979
A PIA Boeing 707 bringing home Pakistani Haj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia crashes shortly after take-off from Jeddah airport, killing 156 people.
October 23, 1986
A PIA Fokker F27 crashes while coming in to land in Peshawar, killing 13 of the 54 people on board.
August 17, 1988
A US-made Hercules C-130 military aircraft crashes near Bahawalpur, killing military ruler General Mohammad Zia ul Haq and 30 others including Pakistani generals and the US ambassador.
August 25, 1989
A PIA Fokker carrying 54 people disappears after leaving Gilgit. The wreckage is never found.
September 28, 1992
A PIA Airbus A300 crashes into a cloud-covered hillside on approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu after the plane descended too early, killing 167 people.
February 19, 2003
An air force Fokker F27 crashes in fog-shrouded mountains near Kohat, killing Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali, his wife and 15 others.
February 24, 2003
A chartered Cessna 402-B carrying Afghan Mines and Industries Minister Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, four Afghan officials, a Chinese mining executive and two Pakistani crew crashes into the Arabian Sea near Karachi.
July 10, 2006
A PIA Fokker F27 bound for Lahore crashes into a field and bursts into flames shortly after takeoff from Multan, killing 41 passengers and four crew.
July 28, 2010
An Airblue Airbus 321 operated by the private airline Airblue flying from Karachi crashes into hills outside Islamabad while preparing to land, killing all 152 people on board.
November 5, 2010
A twin-engine plane operated by Pakistani charter JS Air carrying staff from an Italian oil company crashes shortly after take-off in Karachi, killing all 21 people on board.
November 28, 2010
At least 12 people are killed when a Russian-made Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane operated by Georgian airline Sunway crashes in a fireball seconds after taking off from Karachi.
April 20, 2012
A Bhoja Air Boeing 737 from Karachi comes down in bad weather near Islamabad, killing 121 passengers and 6 crew members.
May 8, 2015
A Pakistani military helicopter crashes, killing eight people including the Norwegian, Philippine and Indonesian envoys and the wives of Malaysian and Indonesian envoys, and setting a school building ablaze in a remote valley near Gilgit.
December 7, 2016
A PIA ATR-42 aircraft crashes enroute from Chitral to Islamabad. The crash claims lives of all 48 passengers and crew, including singer-cum-evangelist Junaid Jamshed.
May 22, 2020
A PIA Airbus A320 crashes near the Karachi Airport while completing a journey from Lahore. A total of 91 passengers, besides 8 crew members, were on board the aircraft.