Deceased pilot being escape goated to save CAA??

According to the reports, the pilot of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, which crashed on 22 May in Karachi killing 97 passengers onboard, had ignored three warnings from Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) about the altitude and speed of the aircraft before landing.

According to an ATC report, Captain Sajjad Gul, the pilot of PK-8303 flight of Airbus A-320, said that he “would handle the situation” before the aircraft crashed into a narrow residential street, bringing significant damage to houses in a densely-populated neighborhood.

ATC report further said plane was 15 nautical miles from the Jinnah International Airport, flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet above the ground instead of 7,000 when the ATC issued its first warning to lower the plane’s altitude.

However, instead of lowering the altitude, the pilot responded by saying that he was satisfied and managed the situation.

At 2:30 pm, the plane was 15 nautical miles from Karachi at Makli, flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet above the ground instead of 7,000 feet, when the air traffic control issued its first warning to the pilot to lower the plane’s altitude.

Instead of lowering the plane altitude, the pilot responded by saying that he was satisfied. When only 10 nautical miles were left till the Karachi Airport, the plane was at an altitude of 7,000 feet instead of 3,000 feet.

However, the pilot responded again by stating that he was satisfied and would handle the situation, saying he was ready for landing.

According to an earlier report, prepared by Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA), the plane’s engines had scraped the runway thrice on the pilot’s first attempt to land the plane. It caused friction and sparks.

The report indicated that the plane had enough fuel to fly for two hours and 34 minutes, while its total flying time was recorded at one hour and 33 minutes.

The investigators are trying to find out if the crash is attributable to a pilot error or a technical glitch.

Meanwhile, a team of Airbus arrived in Karachi to assist the probe of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash, visited the site of the crash on Tuesday.

Since automated emergency systems within the aircraft go off in case of any emergency, and the loud alarms and warnings are impossible to ignore, there was no indication from the pilot to the ATC that something was amiss, it said.

When the aircraft scraped the ground on the first failed attempt at landing, the engine’s oil tank and fuel pump may have been damaged and started to leak, preventing the pilot from achieving the required thrust and speed to raise the aircraft to safety, the report said.

The pilot made a decision “on his own” to undertake a “go-around” after he failed to land the first time. It was only during the go-around that the ATC was informed that landing gear was not deploying, it said.

The pilot was directed by the air traffic controller to take the aircraft to 3,000 feet, but he managed only 1,800. When the cockpit was reminded to go for the 3,000 feet level, the first officer said ‘we are trying’, the report said.

Experts said that the failure to achieve the directed height indicates that the engines were not responding. The aircraft, thereafter, tilted and crashed suddenly.

According to the PIA’s engineering and maintenance department, the last check of the plane was done on March 21 this year and it had flown from Muscat to Lahore a day before the crash.

Meanwhile, rejecting the present probe body, the Sindh government has demanded constitution of a new committee to investigate the PIA plane crash incident in Karachi comprising representatives of PALPA, foreign aviators, international civil aviation experts and Airbus officials.

The demand to this effect was made by Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Education Minister Saeed Ghani and Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh while addressing a joint press conference here on Tuesday.

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