127 killed as Pakistan jet bursts into flames in mid-air

All 127 people on board a budget airline were killed after it crashed following a possible lightning strike, bursting into flames minutes before it was about to land in Islamabad.

Police said there was "no chance of any survivors" in what is the second major air disaster to hit the Pakistan capital in the last two years.

"It will be only a miracle," Fazle Akbar, a police official, said. "The plane is destroyed."

Nine crew and 118 passengers on board the Bhoja Airline flight from Karachi died in the crash, minutes before it was due to land at Benazir Bhutto International Airport. Several senior army officers, an unnamed government minister and four children were reported to be among the victims.

Captain Arshad Mahmood, a Pakistan Navy official said the crash happened as the plane approached the runway to land.

"The weather was very bad, there was hail and thunderstorm. The pilot lost control and hit the ground. It tossed up due to the impact and exploded and came down in a fireball," he said.

Villagers however said they had seen a flash of lightning flash and then heard a massive explosion, which was followed by a rain of aircraft parts and bodies. Some landed on the roofs and in the courtyards of the villagers' homes.

"I was with my family about to eat dinner when there was a flash, a huge bang, and then things started falling to the ground," said Niaz Kayani, a retired soldier.

"It was a scene from hell: bodies were all over the place, in the wheat fields and on the roofs of homes."

The 5pm flight had been due to land in Islamabad at 6.50pm.

Although the pilot had been given clearance to land the Boeing 737 at around 6.45pm, visibility was described as very poor with strong winds, lightning and heavy rains.

It crashed close to the airfield on open ground around nine miles from the runway. Teams of firemen hosed down the wreckage as rescue workers in orange jumpsuits and local residents searched with torches in pitch black through recently-harvested wheat fields. The army declared an emergency and cordoned off the area.

Body parts and pieces of wreckage were strewn across a half mile radius. Plane oxygen masks and shredded clothing littered the village of Hussain Abad, two miles from the main Islamabad highway.

"I saw nothing but body parts and twisted metal on the ground when reached the scene," said one local resident Mustafa. "We collected up small pieces of human flesh and bundled them in cloth sheets like we collect grain."

At Benazir Bhutto airport, distraught relatives wept for the victims.

"I had come to receive my newly wed son and daughter-in-law. My son Sajjad Ali married only 20 days back. He was coming with his wife Sania Abbas today, I had come to receive the couple," said one man.

There were similar scenes outside Karachi airport, as hundreds gathered to find out about the fate of their relatives.

"My brother's wife was on board this flight," said Naveed Khan, who was among family members who gathered at Karachi's airport. "We pray for the departed souls, what else can we do now?"

Although investigators believe poor weather was the likely cause of the crash, the airline has a bad reputation and was once regarded as unreliable.

It began operations in 1993 but later suspended its business before reviving it recently with two Boeing 737s. One was earmarked to fly between Karachi and Dubai and the other Karachi to Islamabad.

The Bhoja crash is the second major crash to hit Pakistan in the last two years. In July 2010, more than 150 people were killed when an Airbus A321, operated by Air Blue, crashed into a hill side in Islamabad. A government investigation blamed the pilot for veering off course amid stormy weather.