Pakistan Plane Crash: Airblue Jet Crashes Near Islamabad

A domestic passenger jet carrying 152 people crashed into the hills surrounding Pakistan's capital on Wednesday morning, officials said. Rescuers were trying to reach the scene amid rain and difficult roads.

The cause of the Airblue crash was not immediately clear, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official. He said the plane was flying from Karachi to Islamabad.

"The plane was about to land at the Islamabad airport when it lost contact with the control tower, and later we learned that the plane had crashed," George said.

Pakistani news channels showed what appeared to be wreckage of the plane as a helicopter hovered above the heavily forested hills to assess the situation. Fire was visible and smoke was blowing up from the scene.