Rescue workers retrieved 50 bodies from the wreckage of an airplane that crashed into a residential area near the Pakistani capital Islamabad, a government official said, as hopes of finding any survivors faded. The Boeing 737, operated by privately owned Bhoja Airlines, was flying from the southern port city of Karachi to Islamabad with 116 passengers and six crew members on board, said Parvez George, spokesman for the country's Civil Aviation authority. "According to the list provided to us by Bhoja Airlines, there are five infants, 111 grown-ups and six crew members," said George. George had earlier placed the total number of people on board at 131. "I don't see there will be any survivor there," said Faisal Sakhi Butt, the head of the prime minister's Task Force. Bad weather is suspected as a possible cause of the accident. It was raining heavily at the time and Interior Minister Rehman Malik said it is possible that lightening might have struck the plane, since it wings were on fire before the crash. The plane had been scheduled to land at Islamabad airport at 6:50pm (1350 GMT), but lost contact with the air control tower at 6:40pm. Government-run Rescue 1122 spokesman Saifur Rehman told Geotelevision from the site that there were dead bodies scattered everywhere. The site of the crash is around five nautical kilometers south of Islamabad. Rescue operations were hampered by adverse weather conditions and nightfall, Rehman told dpa.
