Volunteers help recover remains of dead from Pakistani crash (Feature)

By Nadeem Sarwar and Farrukh Azeem Jul 28, 2010, 16:38 GMT

Islamabad - The smell of burning flesh grew stronger as Saqib Manzoor climbed through the bushes and stones of Islamabad's Margalla Hills to the site where a plane carrying 152 people crashed early Wednesday. Minutes later he found a human arm, blackened with fire.

Manzoor, a 23-year-old college student, is a member of a team of volunteers who struggled throughout the day to find possible survivors of a private Air Blue flight from Karachi, which crashed in the thickly forested mountains. They found none.

'As I was heading towards the site I came across horrible scenes,' said Manzoor. 'Severed body parts were scattered everywhere. A leg was here and the head was over there. Lungs and hearts were scattered everywhere.'

'I was shocked and about to throw up, but then I told myself that I had come here to help the survivors,' added Manzoor.

Rain and difficult terrain hampered rescue efforts, but hundreds of people from the Pakistan Army, police, municipal employees, firefighters and volunteers like Manzoor turned out to help. But all of the 146 passengers and six crew on board had been declared dead by authorities by the end of the day.

With no road access to the scene of the crash, the rescuers formed a 200-foot human chain to move the bodies to the nearest fire line - a track made by the authorities to help firefighters put out the blazes which erupt almost every year in the Margalla Hills.

Rescuers carried the body parts on their backs, stuffed in bags and tied in white sheets, to climb down the hills to the fire line where horses were waiting to transport the dead to a nearby road.

'I am so sad that we could not find a single survivor but at least we can take these bodies to their loved ones so they can bury them with respect,' said Manzoor.

Authorities said most of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition. DNA tests were expected to identify the victims.

While expressing condolences to the victims' families, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered an inquiry into the crash, which many officials said was caused by the rough weather and rain in Islamabad.

'The weather was cloudy and the runway was crowded so the officials concerned asked the pilot to circle the airport for some minutes,' said Junaid Amin, the head of Civil Aviation Authority. 'Then the plane disappeared in the clouds.'

The Airbus A321 wobbled over the main commercial area, upmarket residential areas and the official residences of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani, before crashing into the Margalla Hills, missing a tourist resort in the mountains by a few hundred metres.

'I was on the roof of my house just doing little things when I saw the plane. First I thought it might fall on the city,' said Abu Bakar.

'But the plane passed over the city and crashed into the mountains. There was a big bang minutes later. The fuel tanker might have exploded. I saw the smoke rising from the mountains,' he added.

A correspondent from the German press Agency dpa at the scene said that the pilot had apparently tried to cross over the mountain top but crashed into its side instead.

'The hill is splashed with blood. From a distance it looks as if someone has painted it red,' said the correspondent, who reached the site after a 90-minute trek through the forest.

'There is the upper part of a body hanging from a tree. The rest of the body is lying a few feet from the tree,' added the correspondent. 'Rescue workers are trying to bring down the body.'