The government declared a day of national mourning for the victims.

The commercial passenger plane belonging to the private "Airblue" service was coming from the southern port city of Karachi and crashed as it attempted to land at Islamabad's international airport. All of the 152 people on board were killed, including the six crew members.

Top officials of the private airline maintained the Airbus 321 was not very old and there was nothing technically wrong with it. Airblue is the biggest private airline in Pakistan and started its domestic and limited overseas operations in 2004.

U.S. President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other world leaders offered condolences to the families of the victims, who included two U.S citizens. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit thanked all of them for expressing solidarity with Pakistan at this painful time.

"The people and the government of Pakistan are thankful to all those foreign leaders who have sent messages of condolence and shared our national grief," said Basit.

The last major aviation accident within Pakistan occurred in 2006 when a passenger plane belonging to the state-run Pakistan International Airlines crashed near the central city of Multan, killing 45 people.