As many as 10 people on the ground may have been killed as well when the Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft went down five minutes after take-off from Jinnah airport en route to Sudan, in the early morning.
"The pilot informed the control tower that one engine of the plane had caught fire. He tried to return back to the airport but crashed," Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Parvez George said.
"The plane had arrived from Fujairah, UAE, and was carrying some 31 tonnes of relief items. All eight crew members are dead. They were Russian nationals."
The plane just missed apartments occupied by the retired officers of the Pakistan navy, and exploded into flames in a housing complex under construction.
Firefighters took about four hours to extinguish the blaze and rescue workers were still sifting through the debris of the destroyed buildings for bodies or survivors.
Officials at the city's two main hospitals said they had received six bodies. "These are all completely burnt and beyond recognition," said Semi Jamali, the head of Jinnah Hospital.
Eight to 10 construction workers, believed to be sleeping on the building site that was destroyed by the plane, are missing.
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