Nine of a family among Pindi crash victims

Funerals for 10 of the 13 civilian victims offered

RAWALPINDI: For Muhammad Khan and Abdul Hameed, the night of July 29 will remain seared in their memories as the nightmare during which the brothers lost nine members of their joint family.

Along with the devastated family, five other people were killed and another nine were injured when a small military plane on a training mission crashed in a ‘built-up’ area in the Kantrali village of Mora Kalu early on Tuesday morning.

The fuel tank of the aircraft exploded soon after impact, setting off a fire that damaged five houses and reduced two shanties to ashes.

Firdous, a local, said that such was the intensity of the fire that hours after firefighters had put the flames out, they could still feel the heat radiating from the burnt, smoking structures.

Rescue 1122 officials said that they had pulled as many as nine bodies from a single house, three from another and two — including a woman and a  child — from a shanty.

This was corroborated by the Sihala police who said that the nine bodies pulled from one house belonged to the family of Abdul Hameed.

The bodies were identified as Hameed’s wife Fatima, his 14-year-old son Abdul Hafeez, daughters three-year-old Uzma, three-year-old Raheela, and a year-old-toddler Faizan. Rescue workers also pulled the bodies of Hameed’s mother-in-law Parri Bibi, his 22-year-old brother-in-law Muhammad Shabbir, and his three-year-old daughter Faiza.

Three bodies pulled from the second house belonged to the family of 26-year-old Muhammad Jamil. Rescue workers also recovered the body of his 20-year-old wife Robina and four-year-old son Zohaib.

A further two bodies were pulled from Shamsuddin’s shanty, including that of his wife and son Abdul Rauf.

Of those injured, officials at the burns ward of the Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi said that 13-year-old Iqra Hameed, 30-year-old Shamim Kabeer and 26-year-old Nadeem Ghulam Fareed had suffered severe burns of 100%, 76% and 50% respectively.

Others who suffered burns included 25-year-old Surayya Nadeem — 26%, 70-year-old Nazeer Kareem — 15%, 12-year-old Wasem Nazeer and 42-year-old Fatima Nazeer suffered two per cent burns on their bodies.



In mourning

As the sun rose on Tuesday morning, the sleepy village was in mourning.

Relatives and villagers gathered in hastily-set-up enclosures consoling family members and survivors. Sabar Jaan, who lost three members of her family including her son, daughter-in-law, and a child in the crash while suffering injuries to her left arm wailed inconsolably.

Most of the victims worked medial jobs in the nearby private housing scheme and commercial areas.

Later on Tuesday evening, 10 of the victims were laid to rest. Wrapped in the national flag, their coffins were taken to the graveyard in Dhoke Awan.

A large number of residents, government officials and military personnel participated in the funeral prayers.

Tough security measures were adopted for the funeral.

Later, Hameed, who had survived the crash but lost nine members of his family, lodged a complaint with the Sihala police to register a first information report for the incident.

Hospitals on alert

As word spread about the plane crash on the outskirts of the garrison city, all the three tertiary care hospitals in the city, including HFH, Benazir Bhutto General Hospital (BBH) and District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) were put on high alert. All medical and paramedical staff were also summoned to the hospital. Owing to the nature of injuries, most of the injured were brought to the burns ward at HFH while some were sent to DHQ.

Even though no casualty was brought to BBH, the hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr Rafiq Ahmed stayed in the hospital along with his team and coordinated supply of blood.

The hospitals remained on alert until 7am when the critically injured were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for further treatment.

Viral video

Soon after the crash, a video of the incident — showing the exact moment of impact — went viral on social media. However, the short seven-second clip which captured the incident did so purely out of luck.

The video had been shot by a hand embroidery weaver who works near the site of the crash.

The weaver told The Express Tribune that he works at the Rabi Centre in the commercial area located just half a kilometre from the crash site.

“We were busy finishing orders for Eidul Azha. Because it gets warm in our workshop, we take our embroidery frames to top floor where there is a cool breeze and it is easy to work,” he explained.

He added that around 2am, they could hear the loud noise and saw a small aircraft flying quite low over the populace.

Noting that the sight was unusual, the embroiderer said that he and some of his colleagues took out their camera-equipped smartphones and started recording videos.

While others stopped, he managed to turn his camera on at the just the right moment to capture the horrific sight.

Aghast at what they had just seen, the embroiderer said that they immediately rushed inside and informed the authorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2019.