Print edition: 
ISLAMABAD — Two Americans were among the 152 passengers and crew members who died Wednesday when an Airbus A321 operated by a private Pakistani carrier crashed amid heavy rain into the hills that surround the capital of Islamabad. It was the worst air crash in Pakistani aviation history.
The Airblue plane was on a flight from Karachi, Pakistan, when it crashed around 10 a.m. local time. It carried 146 passengers and a crew of six.
The aircraft had made one pass at landing before airport controllers ordered it to abort. It remained unclear why the plane then flew so low and seemingly straight toward the cloud-covered hills. The plane disintegrated on impact, scattering the wreckage. Thick smoke rose from the crash site.
The plane crashed in dense forest near the top of a hill, about an hour away from the nearest road, making access to the wreckage difficult. Rescuers reached the spot on foot, while helicopters struggled to help.
Hundreds of relatives, friends and colleagues of those killed gathered across the grounds of Islamabad's Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital, and many rushed forward as each ambulance arrived. Hospital authorities hadn't set up any identification process, and the only information available was a list of those who'd been on the flight posted on a wall.
Bundles of body parts were unloaded carefully from the ambulances onto trolleys as anxious relatives pushed forward, hoping to catch a glimpse of a loved one.
"It is a great tragedy, and I confirm it with pain that there are no survivors," said Imtiaz Elahi, the chairman of Islamabad's Capital Development Authority, which deals with emergencies in the city.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad confirmed the deaths of two Americans. Richard Snelsire, a spokesman for the embassy, said that no further details would be released until the next of kin were informed.
Among the dead were a newly married couple, en route to the hill resort of Murree outside Islamabad for their honeymoon. Also killed were six members of the "youth parliament," an initiative by a civil activist group to train youngsters to be politicians, including the "youth prime minister." They were all in their late teens or early 20s.
