Airblue Flight 202

Airblue Flight 202

AP-BJB, the Airblue Airbus A321-231 involved in the accident, photographed on 24 June 2010, just over a month before the crash
Accident summary
Date	28 July 2010
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain aggravated by inclement weather,pilot error.
Site	Margalla Hills, Pakistan 33°44′23″N 73°3′29″E / 33.73972°N 73.05806°E / 33.73972; 73.05806Coordinates: 33°44′23″N 73°3′29″E / 33.73972°N 73.05806°E / 33.73972; 73.05806
Passengers	146
Crew	6
Fatalities	152 (all)
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Airbus A321-231
Operator	Airblue
Registration	AP-BJB
Flight origin	Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan
Destination	Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad, Pakistan

Airblue Flight 202 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight which crashed on 28 July 2010 near Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, killing all 146 passengers and six crew on board. It is the deadliest air accident to occur in Pakistan to date. The aircraft, an Airblue operated Airbus A321-231 narrow-body jet airliner, crashed in the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad during a flight from Karachi's Jinnah International Airport to Benazir Bhutto International Airport. Air traffic controllers reportedly lost contact with the flight crew during its attempt to land in dense fog and heavy monsoon rain.

The accident was the first fatal crash involving an Airbus A321, a long variant of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range airliners. It was the deadliest accident involving the type until Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed in Egypt in 2015, killing 224 people on board. Based in Islamabad, Airblue is Pakistan's second largest airline, with over 30% share of the domestic market. At the time of the accident the airline operated seven aircraft, all in the A320 family.

The aircraft that crashed was an Airbus A321-231, registered AP-BJB, The aircraft was built in 2006, and had a manufacturer serial number of 1218. This was the first fatal crash for the A321, and the second hull-loss of the type. The aircraft had originally been delivered to Aero Lloyd and used by Aero Flight before being taken up by Airblue in 2006. It had accumulated over 34,000 flight hours in some 13,500 flights. The aircraft was previously struck by lightning on 30 December 2008.

The Captain of Flight 202, 61-year-old Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry, had 25,497 hours of flying experience, with 1,060 of those hours in A-320 aircraft. The 34-year-old First Officer (Sqn Ldr) Muntajib Ahmed, a former F-16 Pakistan Air Force fighter pilot, had 1,837 hours of flying experience, 286 of those hours in A-320 aircraft.