The cause of the Airblue crash was not immediately clear, according to Pervez George, a civil aviation official. However, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said the government rules out terrorism.

George said the plane had left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 am for a two-hour scheduled flight to Islamabad and was trying to land during difficult weather. Airblue is private service based in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city.

"The plane was about to land at the Islamabad airport when it lost contact with the control tower, and later we learnt that the plane had crashed," George said, adding that the model of the plane was Airbus 321 and its flight number was ED202.

Initial Interior Ministry reports that five people survived the Airblue crash were wrong, said Imtiaz Elahi, chairman of the Capital Development Authority, which deals with emergencies and reports to the ministry.

Rescue workers scouring the heavily forested hills recovered 50 bodies from the wreckage, according to Ramzan Sajid, spokesman for the Capital Development Authority.

AP