By Reza Sayah and Nasir Habib, CNN
July 28, 2010 -- Updated 0942 GMT (1742 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* NEW: 45 bodies have been recovered
* 8 people have been found alive
* Plane was flying in from Karachi to Islamabad
* Kassim was supposed to be on the flight but changed his mind at the last minute
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A Pakistani passenger plane, with 152 people on board, crashed on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad Wednesday morning.
Six hours later, rescue crews recovered 45 bodies from the wreckage, said Ramzan Sajid, a spokesman for the Capital Development Authority.
Also, eight people were pulled out alive, said Qamar Zaman Kaira, Pakistan's information minister.
The Airblue plane was headed to Islamabad from the sea port city of Karachi when it crashed in a hillside while trying to land, said Pervez George, a spokesman for the country's civil aviation authority.
The Airbus was carrying 146 passengers and six crew members, George said.
"It came from the city toward the Margalla Hills. It was raining heavily," said area resident Ahsan Mukhtar who saw the plane go down. "It shattered into pieces as soon as it crashed. A burst of flames came off, but the rain put out the fire."
The Margalla Hills are a series of small hills north of Islamabad.
Video: A look at Pakistan's Airblue
Video: Passenger skips flight that crashed
RELATED TOPICS
* Pakistan
Officials do not know if weather played a factor in the crash. Pakistan is in the midst of the annual monsoon season, when rain sweeps across the subcontinent from June till September.
Airblue, a private airline company, offers flights within Pakistan, as well as to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom. It makes a fuel stop in Turkey when it is flying from Manchester, England.
"The aircraft was absolutely airworthy. There was nothing technically wrong," said Taheel Ahmed, a spokesman for the airline. "Right now our efforts are more concentrated toward the rescue."
Irshad Kassim, the director of a local bank, flies to Islamabad every week on Airblue and was supposed to have been on the flight -- but changed his mind at the last minute Wednesday morning.
"I know Islamabad has a lot of mountains near the landing area, and there is a lot of lightning in the area," Kassim told CNN. "There was a prediction of heavy rain this morning.
"I was on the flight, booked and confirmed -- and I was going to take the flight. I decided at 6 o' clock to not take the flight because of the weather."
He said he received a call shortly after the plane went down from airline representatives asking if he knew whether a Mr. Kassim was on the flight.
"I told them 'I am so sorry, I did not cancel.' I said, 'Due to the rain, I decided not take this flight,'" Kassim said. "Then I asked 'Why are you asking? Is everything OK?'"
It was then that he found out that the plane had gone down.
"I am still numb. I am very numb. I just feel that it's fate, I guess," he said.
"After I looked at the television, I looked at the picture of my three daughters. That's a natural reaction for a father."
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