Bodies of Pakistan plane crash victims shifted to hospital in Islamabad

Bodies of all the 48 people who were killed in a plane crash in Pakistan's northern mountainous area Wednesday have been shifted to a hospital in Islamabad on Thursday, officials said, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, a lawmaker from Islamabad, said doctors are taking blood samples of relatives of the deceased for DNA test after which the bodies will be identified.

A domestic flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) crashed when it was on its way to Islamabad from northern Chitral district.

The plane was carrying 42 passengers including two Austrians and one Chinese, five crew members and a ground engineer.

PIA chairman Azam Saigol said that the ATR-42 aircraft operating as PK-661 took off at 3.40pm local time Wednesday.

"At 4:14 we received a call from the pilot at Islamabad airport control tower informing us that he lost control over one of the two engines of the plane, we told him to land at the runway once his vision is clear, but at 4:16 we lost the contact with him," the chairman said.

The black box of the plane has been found and will be sent to its manufacturer in France for decoding. - BERNAMA