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Third Islamabad-bound flight crashes in 6 years
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Pakistan army troops and rescue workers search for bodies at the site of a plane crash, in a village near the town of Havelian, about 75 kilometers northwest of the capital, Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. (AP/Aqeel Ahmed)
P
akistan International Airlines (PIA) has issued a condolence note to the families of the victims of flight PK-661 that crashed in Havailian on Wednesday.
According the statement, PIA’s ATR-42 aircraft, carrying 40 passengers onboard, from Chitral to Islamabad lost contact with the control tower. The ATR’s crash is the third aircraft accident in six years among flights to Islamabad, and no reason has been given for the crash so far.
In July 2010, Airblue flight ABQ-202 flying from Karachi to Islamabad missed its course and crashed into the Margalla Hills, killing all 152 people onboard. The investigation report into the crash was presented to then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Aug. 3, 2011, and the pilot was blamed for the crash.
On Apr. 20, 2012, a Bhoja Air Boeing 737 aircraft from Karachi crashed in the fields on the outskirts of Islamabad, killing 121 passengers and six crew members.
The crash created an uproar and led to challenges for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the aviation industry in the country. The public pressure over the possible lack of safety standards in the aviation sector also led the government to set up a separate Aviation Division.
In 2013, the Airport Security Force, PIA and CAA were transferred from the defense ministry to the Cabinet Secretariat’s Aviation Division, which is answerable to the prime minister.
After pressure from the families of the victims, the CAA released its final 78-page investigation report on Jan. 21, 2015, which cited technical misjudgements on the part of the pilots due to bad weather as the reason for the crash.
The delay in the CAA’s report had also forced the victims’ relatives to approach the Peshawar and Islamabad high courts, seeking a judicial inquiry into the Airblue and Bhoja plane crashes.
The investigation into the 2012 crash was initiated by the CAA and the Safety Investigation Board of Pakistan, and the CAA was assisted by Boeing.
The cockpit’s voice recorder was recovered from the wreckage on April 21 and handed over to the CAA and was then sent to the US along with the flight’s data recorder for analysis by Boeing.
The CAA’s final investigation said ineffective flight desk management by the pilots in adverse weather conditions caused the crash.
The investigators also said the airline was at fault, as the pilots did not have adequate flight experience, training and level of competence.
The first officer lacked formal simulator training in handling an automated flight deck, while the operator did not possess a pilot’s professional competence and skill level monitoring system.
The report also included several key recommendations for airlines in the country, including that all operators in Pakistan must ensure that customized applicable aircraft documents, to be approved by the CAA, are procured before the launch of flight operations.
The report also emphasized the strict implementation of the CAA-approved operational manual by the flight crew, as well as the need for a mechanism where cockpit crew can share their views freely with the appropriate supervisory levels to highlight deficiencies in their training for the safe conduct of flights and for the close monitoring and tracking of simulator training waivers and extensions for the cockpit crew.
According to the Aviation Division, these recommendations are largely being implemented.
This article appeared on the Dawn newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
