Pakistan Airlines carrying 40 passengers has lost contact with a control tower and crashed in Pakistan.

Airlines flight crashed Wednesday near Abbottabad, officials said.

The airline said the PIA's ATR-42 aircraft was carrying about 40 people when it lost contact with a control tower on its way from Chitral to Islamabad.

Pop star turned preacher Junaid Jamshed was among those on board flight PK-661

The nation has a checkered air safety history and suffered three fatal commercial air crashes in 2010 that claimed 185 lives, according to the Aviation Safety Network.