At Least 2 Somehow Survived Jet Crash

There's a lot we don't know about Friday's crash of a Pakistani passenger jet into a Karachi neighborhood, including the number of casualties. But one number was resonating in the aftermath of the tragedy: two. That would be the number of passengers so far known to have survived when the low-flying Airbus 320 took out five or six houses and slammed into an alley, reports the AP. One survivor has been identified as Zafar Masud, who is the head of the Bank of Punjab in Pakistan, per Outlook India. He was hospitalized with hip and collar bone fractures. The other survivor is identified as Mohammad Zubair, who suffered relatively minor facial injuries. He recalled that the plane began to wobble as it neared Karachi's airport. "The next moment there was a hard crash and I lost consciousness,” said Zubair.

Rescuers were looking for other survivors. The Pakistan International Airlines jet is believed to have had 91 passengers and seven crew members aboard when it went down, although the numbers have been fluctuating throughout the day. So far, 57 bodies have been recovered. It remained unclear whether anyone on the ground was killed. Based on air traffic controller communications, it appears the plane had engine trouble as it was attempting to land. "We have lost engines," a pilot says in a recording, per Reuters. After the controller freed up both airport runways for an emergency landing, the pilot said, "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" in the last communication from the plane. (More plane crash stories.)