Bridegrooms May Have Downed Pakistan Plane
KARACHI, Pakistan — Wedding celebrants firing rifles into the air may have caused a Pakistani plane crash, and seven bridegrooms were arrested for “lethal celebrations during marriage ceremonies,” a newspaper reported Thursday.
The English-language newspaper Dawn said the Oct. 23 crash of the Pakistan International Airlines plane, in which 13 people died and more than 20 were injured, may have been the result of gunfire that either hit the aircraft or distracted the pilot.
The bridegrooms were arrested in the northern city of Peshawar, where the F-27 Fokker Friendship plane crashed near the airport, the newspaper reported, quoting unidentified highly place sources.
The sources said analysis of the propeller-driven plane’s flight recorder produced a tape recording of the pilot saying he was taking ground fire and was switching off the plane’s lights.
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