Struggling Pakistan International Airlines had a tragedy today with flight PK611 from Chitral to Islamabad operated by an ATR 42 declaring an emergency with left engine problems. Radar and radio contact was lost.

Reports on the ground near Abbottabad (north of Islamabad, where Osama bin Laden was found) were of sounds of a crash. All 42 passengers and 5 crew are presumed lost.

Chitral is a domestic airport in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, about 173 miles from Islamabad.

The plane, delivered in May 2007, had a previous incident in 2009 skidding off the runway in Lahore 2000 feet into a drainage ditch.

Thoughts are with the families of those onboard, and the airline’s employees, as news of this tragedy develops.