Pakistanis rush to scene: ‘I just wanted to help’

ISLAMABAD – “I just heard it over the news and had to do something. I just wanted to help.” That was the resounding refrain heard in the densely forested hills surrounding Islamabad where a plane crashed, killing all 152 passengers Wednesday.

Without thinking, people just went to the crash scene. Ordinary people, dressed in local garb, not rescue gear, rushed to the crash to see what they could do to help.??

Photo by EPA/STRINGER

Pakistani Army soldiers and rescue workers begin their climb of the Margalla Hills near Islamabad on Wednesday following the plane crash that killed all 152 passengers aboard the flight from Karachi.

As our NBC News team reached the area, we saw these three doctors – two women and a man – coming down looking really muddy and very scruffy. I asked them if they were part of the rescue team.

“No, we’re not. We just came of our own accord. We heard there was a plane crash and wanted to try to get there to do what we can,” one of them said.

But because the terrain was so rough, they could only reach a certain point. There were no trails to the crash site. The area is very dense forest and due to the rain, it was extremely muddy and slippery. They said they tripped and fell quite a bit, so they finally had to abandon their mission, turn around and come back.?

Their intentions were good, but they regretted that they weren’t dressed properly and that the weather wasn’t better. The terrain is so bad that it required real trekking gear and hiking boots, which no one seemed to be wearing.

Despite the difficult conditions, there was a real sense of spirit and camaraderie among ordinary people trying to help.

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I saw another man dressed in local dress that was completely muddied and wet. I asked him what the red on his clothes was from and he said that it was the blood from all the passengers he had carried.?

He wasn’t part of the official rescue effort, either. He said he was just a student who works in a shop in Islamabad. He said that when he heard the news, he ran out and trekked two and a half hours to see what he could do to help the emergency services. “I just had to do something. I just wanted to help,” he said.?

We even saw one man who works in the same office building as us and is a media executive. He just went straight to the scene in his fancy office clothes, which were completely covered in mud by the time I saw him. He also said he felt compelled to go to the crash scene to do what he could.

Slideshow: Deadly plane crash in Pakistan