At least two passengers survive deadly crash.

Byline: Imran Ayub

KARACHI -- At least two passengers miraculously survived the tragic incident in which a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft carrying 99 people crashed near the airport on Friday.

The A-320 Airbus, which was carrying 91 passengers and eight crewmembers from Lahore aboard Flight PK-8303, met its fate minutes before 3pm and crashed in the residential Jinnah Garden society in Model Colony, not far from Karachi airport.

The names of the confirmed survivors were president of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) Zafar Masud and a young resident of Mehmoodabad, Mohammad Zubair.

There were unconfirmed reports about other possible survivors as well. However, because there was no official confirmation about their fate, Dawn is not mentioning them.

The loud noise, the big fire and the strong vibrations caused by the huge airliner when it hit the ground created panic among the residents of Jinnah Garden. When the people regained composure they realised the gravity of the situation. They soon came to know that the crash had left two streets of their society under thick black smoke and flames.

BoP's president was carried out of the debris, while the other survivor moved out of it on his own

'As news of the plane crash was confirmed, our only concern was to put out the fire and extract the people out of the (affected) houses, who were injured in the crash,' said Asif Nizam, a resident of the society.

'There was thick smoke. We couldn't breathe and see anything. We (initially) couldn't enter the affected street, but somehow we managed to do so. There was no one. No ambulance. No fire tender. The plane had crashed just three to five minutes ago. We were seven or eight neighbours who reached there first.'

As Mr Nizam and his neighbours moved into the street, one of them suggested they should first help the people inside the damaged houses...