An Airbus plane with 99 on board crashed into a residential area of the Pakistani city of Karachi on Friday while on approach to the airport, with at least one passenger surviving but many others feared dead, officials said.

Pakistan International Airlines, haemorrhaging money and losing market share, has been hit by management turmoil in recent years and a 2016 plane crash that led to 47 deaths.

A passenger aircraft which was intercepted and escorted by fighter jets to Stansted airport northeast of London was diverted because of reports of a disruptive passenger, British police said on Tuesday.

Pakistani authorities have seized heroin worth an estimated $1.6mn hidden on board a Saudi Arabia-bound aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), a customs official said on Thursday.

Staff of national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) sacrificed a black goat to cast away evil on an ATR-42 plane before it was returned to service, according to newspaper reports on Monday.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chairman Azam Saigol has resigned from his post citing personal reasons, the company's spokesman said, less than a week after a PIA plane crashed and all 47 people on board were killed.

Pakistan's national carrier on Monday grounded its 10 French-built ATR turboprop planes after a crash last week killed 47 people and a second aircraft reported technical issues shortly before it was supposed to take off overnight.

At least 40 people died when a plane carrying 48 passengers crashed into a mountain in northern Pakistan on Wednesday and witnesses at the site of the flaming wreckage said there were unlikely to be any survivors.

Pakistan's national flag carrier said on Monday it has raised $130mn in fresh financing from a banking consortium, as the airline staggers under the weight of earlier loans totalling more than $3bn.

Employees of Pakistan's national airline are in custody and under investigation after drugs were seized from a Dubai-bound flight, a spokesman said on Monday.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) employees Tuesday ended their nine-day long strike spurred by plans to privatise the national carrier, saying their representatives would immediately hold talks with the government.

Most flights by Pakistan’s ailing national airline were grounded yesterday, a company spokesman said, as striking employees disrupted operations to protest against a government privatisation plan.