Aviation minister tells NA there was no technical fault in aircraft, holds pilots and ATC responsible
\nnews desk
\nISLAMABAD
\nWhile presenting the initial investigation report on the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) plane crash before the National Assembly on Wednesday, the government held the pilot and the air-traffic controller (ATC) responsible for not following the \u201cstandard protocol\u201d which resulted in the killing of 97 of 99 passengers on board.
\nThe Karachi-bound flight PK-8303 crashed on May 23 in Karachi\u2019s Model Colony neighbourhood, close to the Jinnah International Airport, killing all but two of the 99 aboard. The Airbus A-320 from Lahore came down about a kilometre short of the runway on its second attempt to land.
\nShortly after the crash, the government had formed a committee headed by Air Commodore Usman Ghani, who is president of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB), to determine the causes of the crash and issue a report in one month\u2019s time. The manufacturer, Airbus, also offered technical assistance to the government team.
\nMinister for Aviation Division Ghulam Sarwar Khan, who presented the report in the Lower House, said there was no technical fault in the aircraft and both the pilots were medically fit to fly.
\n\u201cAccording to the report, the plane was 100 per cent fit for flying. It had no technical fault. Flights were suspended due to coronavirus, the plane took its first flight on May 7 and the crash happened on May 22. In between, it completed six flights successfully; five to and from Karachi and one to Sharjah,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe pilot on the final approach did not identify any technical fault [as well]. At a distance of 10 miles from the runway, the plane should have been at an altitude of 10,200 feet but it was around 7,000 feet. This was the first irregularity,\u201d the minister added.
\nKhan said that the ATC told the pilot thrice that the plane was too low to land but he \u201crefused to listen\u201d. Another important factor, he added, was that the pilot closed the landing gear at a distance of five nautical miles from the runway even though they were open before.
\nAccording to the report, the plane was on auto-landing but the pilot brought it back to the manual landing before the crash. It should have come in at 40 degrees but it dived at 60 degrees, he added.
\nThe minister also blamed the pilots\u2019 \u201coverconfidence and lack of focus\u201d for the crash. \u201cThe pilots were discussing coronavirus throughout the flight. They were not focused. They talked about corona [\u2026] their families were affected. When the control tower asked him to increase the plane\u2019s height, the pilot said \u2018I\u2019ll manage\u2019. There was [the level of their] overconfidence.\u201d
\nAccording to Khan, data from the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was decoded in the presence of foreign experts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aviation minister tells NA there was no technical fault in aircraft, holds pilots and ATC responsible news desk ISLAMABAD While presenting the initial investigation report on the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) plane crash before the National Assembly on Wednesday, the government held the pilot and the air-traffic controller (ATC) responsible for not following the \u201cstandard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n