KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Four more bodies were found Sunday at the site of a cargo plane crash in Karachi, Pakistan, raising the death toll to 12, aviation authorities said.
The Russian-made Il-76 cargo plane carrying relief supplies to Sudan had a crew of eight Russians aboard when it crashed 2 minutes after takeoff Saturday, Masood Raza, a Karachi district government official told Geo News.
Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said four construction workers sleeping in an unfinished building also died and another man was in critical condition with burns to 60 percent of his body, CNN reported.
The search for more victims continued Sunday in the area, the report said.
Raza said it appeared the pilot tried to steer the aircraft away from more densely populated areas.
"If the plane would have crashed in a (more crowded) residential area, it would have been a very big disaster for the city of Karachi," he said.
The bodies of the crew members were burned beyond recognition and DNA samples had been taken to identify them, Geo said.
The director of Sun Way, the Georgian airline that owned the plane, Dzhemal Tamazashvili, told the Ria Novosti news agency Sunday his technicians suspected a bird strike crippled the plane just after takeoff, but there was no official confirmation.
