Islamabad - Investigators searching the site of an airliner crash near Pakistan's capital in which 152 people died have found the plane's black box, a civil aviation official said Saturday.

"The investigating committee found the black box from the Margalla Hills this morning," Junaid Ameen, director-general of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, told AFP by telephone.

The 10-year-old Airbus 321, operated by Airblue, slammed into the hills overlooking Islamabad in heavy rain and poor visibility on Wednesday as it came into land after a morning flight from Karachi.

"The black box was found from the bulk of the wreckage of the crashed plane. It is going to be a central part of our investigation," Ameen said, adding that it would be sent to "foreign experts" for decoding. - Sapa-AFP