Pakistani plane with more than 40 people aboard crashes in north: police

[December 07, 2016]    ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying more than 40 people crashed on Wednesday en route to Islamabad from the northern city of Chitral, a regional police official said.

The national flag carrier confirmed in a statement that Flight PK-661 had lost contact with air traffic controllers on Wednesday afternoon.

Laiq Shah, a senior police official in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province told Reuters by telephone that the plane had crashed in that region, near the town of Havelian.

He said rescue personnel were en route to the scene.

(Reporting by Jibran Ahmad and Asad Hashim; Writing by Kay Johnson)

[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.