A plane carrying about 40 people has crashed on the slope of a mountain in northern Pakista, with witnesses at the site of the flaming wreckage saying there were unlikely to be any survivors.

The military said 36 bodies had been recovered and rescue efforts involved about 500 soldiers, doctors and paramedics following the crash on Wednesday afternoon.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said its plane lost contact with the control tower en route to the capital, Islamabad, from the northern region of Chitral.

Flames rise from the wreckage of a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane after it crashed near Abbottabad, Pakistan. Photo: EPA

The airline said the plane crashed in the Havelian area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, about 125 km north of Islamabad. The region is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Pakistan.

“All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris is scattered,” Taj Muhammad Khan, a government official based in Havelian, told Reuters.

Khan, who was at the crash site, said witnesses told him “the aircraft has crashed in a mountainous area, and before it hit the ground it was on fire”.

Images shown on Pakistani TV channels showed a trail of wreckage engulfed in flames on a mountain slope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hHmUdlMWnU

Irfan Elahi, the government’s Aviation Secretary, told media the plane suffered engine problems but it was too early to determine the cause of the accident.

PIA said the plane was carrying 48 passengers, including five crew members and a ground engineer. But Sohail Ahmed, a PIA official in Chitral, said there were 41 people on board, while the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) put the number at 47.

The military said it had sent in troops and helicopters.

Relatives and friends gather outside the home of Islamic celebrity Junaid Jamshed, killed in the crash. Photo: EPA/Shahzaib Akber

Junaid Jamshed, a well-known Pakistani pop star turned evangelical Muslim cleric, was on board, according to Ahmed, the PIA official in Chitral.

Jamshed, a singer in one of Pakistan’s first successful rock bands in the 1990s, abandoned his singing career to join the Tableeghi Jamaat group, which travels across Pakistan and abroad preaching about Islam.

According to the flight manifest, there were three people on board with foreign names.

Plane crashes are not uncommon in Pakistan and safety standards are often criticised.

PIA has also suffered major disasters in the past.

– Jibran Ahmed and Asad Hashim