The recorder, or “black box,” was found at the scene of the accident in the southern Pakistani city
Karachi on Saturday, according to PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan.
Two passengers survived but 97 bodies have been recovered from the scene, Pakistani Armed Forces spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar said earlier on Saturday.
The jet crashed in a residential area, but it did not hit any buildings and no one on the ground appeared to have died, said PIA Air CEO Marshal Arshad Malik.
Iftikhar said army troops, forest rangers and social welfare organizations had assisted in the search.
He added: “97 bodies recovered. 2 passengers survived. 25 affected houses were cleaned, their residents were accommodated in various places with the help of the Civil Administration.”
The plane took off from Lahore and was scheduled to land at 2:30 pm. local time in Karachi but was missing from radar, PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan told CNN.
The pilot on the plane told air traffic controllers in Karachi that he lost the engine, before the plane crashed on Friday.
“We moved directly, we lost the engine,” the pilot said about the aircraft’s approach, in an audio recording of aircraft communications obtained by CNN from Pakistani government sources.
On the tape, air traffic control asks the pilot to confirm that the aircraft will have a belly landing, a situation where the plane lands without using its landing gear.
Pilot response is not heard. It is not clear why air traffic control addresses such landings.
Seconds later the pilot can be heard giving some mayday calls, followed by a response from the air traffic control that says both runways clearly landed. The audio is then disconnected.
Khan confirmed the authenticity of the recording.
“[The pilot] has been told that both landing strips are available for use but he prefers to use the go-around landing route, we are looking for technical problems. Our prayers for lives that have been lost, “Khan said earlier on Friday.
Sophia Saifi reports from Islamabad, and Rob Picheta writes from London. Adeel Raja, Laura Smith-Spark and Sandi Sidhu contributed in reporting.
