Black box found at site of Pakistan plane crash

Investigators searching the site of an airliner crash near Pakistan's capital in which 152 people died have found the plane's black box, a minister and a civil aviation official said yesterday.

"The investigating committee found the black box from the Margalla Hills this morning," Junaid Ameen, director-general of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, told AFP by telephone.

The 10-year-old Airbus 321, operated by Airblue, slammed into the hills overlooking Islamabad in heavy rain and poor visibility last Wednesday as it came into land after a morning flight from Karachi.

"The black box was found from the bulk of the wreckage of the crashed plane. It is going to be a central part of our investigation," Ameen said, adding that it would be sent to "foreign experts" for decoding.

Interior minister Rehman Malik also confirmed the find.

"I have received the confirmation that the black box of the crashed plane has been found," Malik told private Geo television.

"It will very helpful in the investigation."

Ameen said the black box was recovered at 9.55 a.m. by a joint team of French experts, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Capital Development Authority and Islamabad police.

"The black box is now in our possession. Its condition and other things will be analysed. Let's see what we are able to get from the results," Ameen said.

A five-person team from Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, was assisting with the recovery and using cutters to slice through the wreckage.

The bodies of 102 people have been returned to their families and 62 relatives have given blood that is now being used to DNA test other remains in a bid to positively identify them, the airline said.

The crash was the worst aviation tragedy on Pakistani soil, piling more woes on a country that is on the frontline of the war on Al-Qaeda and where Islamist militant bombers have killed more than 3,570 people in the past three years.

Two Americans, an Austrian-born businessman, five children and two babies were among the 152 people on board flight ED 202.

The only deadlier civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet occurred when a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a cloud-covered hillside as it approached the Nepalese capital Kathmandu in 1992, killing 167 people.

The crash was part of a week of tragedy for Pakistan, where massive flooding and torrential rains have so far claimed at least 800 lives.