Karachi plane crash: Pakistani girl injured on ground dies at hopital

A Pakistani girl who was critically injured on the ground last month when a passenger plane went down in a crowded neighborhood of the port city of Karachi has died at a hospital, her relatives and a doctor said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the plane’s black box flight recorders were sent to France, where their data was downloaded Tuesday. The Airbus A320 crash killed 97 passengers and crew members; two passengers survived the crash.

The 12-year-old girl was among four local residents who were injured when the Airbus A320 crashed near the Karachi airport on May 22, slamming into the densely crowded neighborhood and setting off a huge fire.

People stand amidst debris of a passenger plane which crashed in a residential area near an airport in Karachi, Pakistan, on May 22, 2020.(Reuters)

She died on Monday from severe burn injuries, said Rubina Bashir, a doctor at a government hospital where the girl was treated. The remaining three injured local residents are still hospitalized.

Initial reports have said the Pakistan International Airlines jet crashed after an apparent engine failure. Flight PK-8303 took off from the eastern city of Lahore and was trying to land at the Karachi airport when it crashed. At least 18 homes on the ground were damaged or destroyed.

Read more: Airbus opens probe into Pakistan plane crash that killed 97

In France, investigators successfully downloaded material from both the voice recorder and the data recorder on Tuesday, according to the French air accident investigation agency BEA.

Pakistani air accident investigators and experts from Airbus and the engine maker met to discuss the investigation, and the data is being analyzed, the BEA said. The agency has years of experience investigating major plane crashes, and is involved because the plane was made by France-based planemaker Airbus.

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The crash took place just days after Pakistan lifted some of the restrictions imposed over the coronavirus pandemic and resumed domestic flights ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

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Pakistan had been in a countrywide lockdown since mid-March because of the virus, and when flights resumed, every other seat was left vacant to promote social distancing, including on the doomed PIA flight. Authorities have reported over 76,398 cases of the virus, including 1,621 deaths.