Latest news with #PK-8303
Express Tribune
22-05-2025
- General
- Express Tribune
The scars of PK-8303 still linger
It has been five years since Pakistan International Airlines flight PK-8303 crashed near Karachi's Jinnah International Airport, claiming 97 lives and leaving behind harrowing stories of survival and loss. On May 22, 2020, amid eased Covid-19 restrictions, flight PK-8303 took off from Lahore for Karachi with 91 passengers and 8 crew members aboard, many heading home to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr. However, the aircraft never made it safely to its destination. According to official findings, the aircraft attempted to land at Jinnah Terminal but its landing gear failed to deploy. Both engines repeatedly scraped the runway during the first landing attempt, causing sparks to fly. Instead of executing a belly landing, the pilot opted for a go-around, a decision that ultimately proved fatal. In the final moments, the captain issued a Mayday call. Cockpit recordings and flight data revealed that the crew violated standard descent protocols near Nawabshah and Makli, maintaining higher than advised altitude and speed during approach. The Airbus A320, weighing 80 tons, broke apart and crashed onto the densely populated Jinnah Garden residential area. The thunderous noise of collapsing metal, plummeting parts and erupting fuel painted a scene of apocalypse. One of the few survivors on the ground, Sohail Asghar, recounted the traumatic moments to The Express Tribune. On that fateful Friday afternoon, shortly after offering Jumuah prayers, he had just sat in his car parked outside his home to run errands for iftar. The engine had barely started and the door remained open when he heard an ominous roar, a grinding, growling sound unlike anything he had ever heard. Panicked and unable to comprehend what was happening, Asghar threw himself onto a small patch of garden next to his house. Seconds later, flaming metal shards, heavy aircraft parts, and boiling jet fuel began raining from the sky. "Everything was burning. The alley was shrouded in thick, black smoke. My screams were probably drowned out in the chaos," he said. Unseen to him, two young neighbours had noticed Asghar moments before he stepped out. Hearing the crash, they rushed through the smoke and dragged him inside their home. Rescue officials were eventually alerted, and Asghar was moved to the hospital. He remained under treatment for nearly eight months. Even today, Asghar says, he finds it difficult to revisit that memory. He no longer lives in Jinnah Garden, having relocated after the trauma became unbearable.
India Today
01-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Fact Check: 2020 crash video FALSELY shared as Pak shooting down its own plane!
Since the April 22 terror attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam, the Pakistani military has been on high alert, anticipating a possible Indian strike, leading to heightened tensions on the a video showing a residential area with plumes of smoke and flames is going viral on social media. This video allegedly shows a Pakistani passenger plane shot down by the country's own air force. An X user shared the clip and wrote, 'A passenger plane shot down by @DGPR_PAF near Karachi airport. A plane hit a residential area, and almost 100 people were onboard.'advertisement India Today Fact Check found that the viral video is from May 2020. The plane wasn't shot down — the crash happened because of 'human error'.Our ProbeReverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to a YouTube video dated May 22, 2020. The video's description stated that a Pakistan International Airlines plane, PK-8303, had crashed near Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. The flight was returning from Lahore and was about to land when it crashed near Model Colony in Malir, Karachi. We found the viral video's screengrabs in several news reports published in May 2020. Reportedly, 101 people, including 99 passengers and flight crew members, lost their lives, while two passengers the New York Post, witnesses said the passenger plane appeared to have attempted to land several times before the crash in a residential area of Karachi. The plane first hit a mobile tower and crashed into houses, a witness said. The PIA said that the pilot made a mayday call saying he was experiencing a technical years after the incident, the final report was released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board in 2024. According to it, the crash was caused by 'human error' due to a lack of coordination between the pilots of flight PK-8303 and the air traffic we did not find any news reports suggesting the Pakistani Air Force shot down a passenger plane in Karachi recently. Thus, it's clear that an old video of a plane crash was shared with false Reel Want to send us something for verification? Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000 You can also send us an email at factcheck@
