Just to comment on some estimates which have appeared here, the crash site is shown approximately in
This FlightGlobal article by Leithen Francis which appeared on the 27 July. The article states that
Originally Posted by Leithen Francis in FlightGlobal
The crash site is in the Margalla mountains and satellite images show the crash site is 9.66nm from the airport
but they don't say from which point on the airport is being measured. It is consistent with being 9.7 nm away from the approach end of RWY 12. I note that the Islamabad VOR is actually at the approach end of RWY 30, so further away. The graphic with scale in this week's paper Flight International (3-9 August) is roughly consistent, so Flight is sticking by these figures.
Circling should take place within 5nm, according to Flight, so the impact occurred at almost twice the allowed circling radius, not just the 7 nm which has been mooted here.
PBL