Heavy monsoon rains in Islamabad on Thursday hampered recovery efforts at the site of a Pakistani plane crash that killed all 152 people on board a day earlier, a senior police officer said.
The Airbus 321, belonging to private airline AirBlue, crashed on Wednesday into a steep and heavily-wooded hillside in Islamabad shortly before it was due to land after a flight from the southern port city of Karachi.
Thick fog and rainy weather are considered the most likely reasons for the worst aviation accident on Pakistani soil.
Bin Yameen, deputy inspector-general with the Islamabad police, told Reuters the operation to recover the remains of victims could not be resumed due to the heavy rain. Difficulty in accessing the site was also complicating salvage efforts.
"We are waiting for the rain to stop. In such weather, neither helicopters can fly nor rescue workers move up easily.
"We may give it a try but it seems very difficult to carry out such operation in difficult terrain," he said.
Investigators were looking into causes of the crash, said senior Civil Aviation Administration officer Ayaz Jadoon.
"They're going through records and documents, though they couldn't go up because of bad weather," he said, adding the plane's "black box" data recorder has yet to be recovered.
The control tower at the airport was sealed off, and radio traffic between the plane and the tower was being examined.
The torrential rain may also damage, or wash away, evidence at the site.
"Time is very precious," the investigation team's head, Khawaja Abdul Majeed, told Dawn News television after arriving in Islamabad late Wednesday from Karachi.
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