page_title: Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661
section_title: Crash
hierarchical_section_title: Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661 / Crash
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Physische Positionskarte von Pakistan Quadratische Plattkarte, N-S-Streckung 115&#160;%. Geographische Begrenzung der Karte: N: 37.3° N S: 23.4° N W: 60.5° O O: 80.5° O English: Physical location map of Pakistan Equirectangular projection, N/S stretching 115&#160;%. Geographic limits of the map: N: 37.3° N S: 23.4° N W: 60.5° E E: 80.5° E
context_page_description: On 7 December 2016, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 661, a domestic passenger flight from Chitral to Islamabad, Pakistan, operated by an ATR 42-500 twin-turboprop, crashed near Havelian. All 47 people on board died, including singer-turned-preacher and entrepreneur Junaid Jamshed, and the Deputy Commissioner of the District of Chitral.
context_section_description: The aircraft left Chitral Airport at 3:30 PST and was expected to land at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad at around 4:40. Before the crash, the crew issued a mayday call. The aircraft crashed at about 4:15 leaving wreckage ablaze on the side of a hill between the villages of Saddha Batolni and Gug, near the Pakistan Ordnance Factory in Havelian in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province about 90 kilometres (56 mi) from the airport. The wreckage was reported to be strewn over an area about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) across. According to an eyewitness, Mohammad Haroon, the aircraft flew at a very low altitude and made a high-pitched noise, flying in an erratic, up-and-down mode before crashing into the hillside. "There was a huge bang after the plane hit the mountainside and caught fire".
  Announcements were broadcast by local mosques to mobilise villagers, who rushed to the site to look for survivors but were unable to get close due to the heat of the fire. Pakistan Army personnel and helicopters were also sent to the area for search and rescue operations. Taj Muhammad Khan, a government official, stated that all the bodies were burned beyond recognition. The remains were taken by air to forensic laboratories in Islamabad and Rawalpindi for DNA testing to aid identification.
  This was the seventh aircraft accident resulting in hull loss sustained by PIA since 2000. Of the previous six, one resulted in fatalities; that of PIA Flight 688 in 2006, in which 45 people died.
caption: A map showing the locations of the Chitral airport (CJL); Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport (ISB); and Havelian, the location of the crash site.
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