KARACHI: Fighting back tears amid a scramble to get adequate information about the passengers on board the ill-fated Airblue airbus, relatives and friends thronged the ticket counters of the three local airlines in an attempt to fly to Islamabad as it slowly emerged that the Margalla air crash had left no survivors.
People ran desperately from one counter to another as the Airblue, PIA and Shaheen Air announced plans to fly a relative or friend of each victim to Islamabad. However, no senior officer of Airblue was present at the airport.
Aviation sources said that 130 relatives of the victims were flown out to the capital by a special Airblue flight, 23 by Shaheen Air and 10 by PIA. Over 100 passengers killed in the Margalla air crash on Wednesday are believed to be from Karachi.
The victims’ relatives faced a great deal of hardship at the airport as they had to wait till late in the evening to get complimentary tickets for the journey.

“We have been waiting to get tickets since morning, but no one is guiding us,” said Imran Ali Sehrani, a cousin of Abdul Ghani Khan Sehrani, the district president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) in Kandhkot.
He said he wanted to reach Islamabad as early as possible so that he could identify his victim cousin. “It seems the administration is intentionally delaying our departure for one reason or another,” he complained.
Sehrani said he and other family members were willing to fly to Islamabad at their own expense. “We just want to reach Islamabad before they pack the body into a coffin,” he said.
Said Khan Safi, whose maternal uncle, Saeed Azam, and three other relatives were on board the plane, said the family members of the victim had flown to Islamabad to attend the funeral of a relative there. “My uncle was the father of a son and six daughters. The airline people are telling us that only my uncle’s son could go to Islamabad,” he said, and wondered how a bereaved son could handle the situation over there.
The Margalla air crash victims included an army officer, Captain Unser Abbas of 1 AK Regiment. The victim’s uncle, Mohammed Salman Khan, told Dawn that Unser had gone to Islamabad to join a training course. The 26-year-old army officer of 115 PMA long course was the eldest among his three siblings.
His uncle said he had got a ticket for Islamabad by Airblue at around 6.30pm though he had reached the airport at 10am.
The victims included a newlywed couple, residents of Iqbal Town, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, who had flown to Islamabad for their honeymoon. The bride’s father, Iftikhar, was flown to Islamabad by a Shaheen Air flight.
A young man, whose wedding was scheduled after three days in Islamabad, his brother and two paternal cousins were also on board the ill-fated plane. They were residents of Baldia Town. Their relatives told Dawn that the airline was offering ticket only to the family.
The Civil Aviation Authority set up a counter at the Jinnah Terminal to provide information about the passengers on board. However, they had no information and only the list of the passengers.