Security personnel stand next to the wreckage of an airplane at the site after an airplane crash
Karachi:
The pilot of the crashed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft ignored three warnings from air traffic controllers regarding the altitude and speed of the aircraft before landing, saying he was satisfied and would handle the situation, according to a report released Monday.
The tragedy of the national carrier PK-8303, in which 97 people were killed and two who miraculously survived, was one of the most catastrophic air disasters in the country’s history on Friday.
The Airbus A-320 from Lahore to Karachi was 15 nautical miles from Jinnah International Airport, flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet above the ground instead of 7,000 when Air Traffic Control (ATC) issued Its first warning to lower the plane’s altitude, Geo News quoted an ATC report as saying.
Instead of lowering the altitude, the pilot responded by saying that he was satisfied. When there were only 10 nautical miles to the airport, the plane was at an altitude of 7,000 feet instead of 3,000 feet, he said.
ATC issued a second warning to the pilot to lower the altitude of the aircraft. However, the pilot responded again by stating that he was satisfied and that he would manage the situation, saying he was ready to land, the report said.
The report said the plane had enough fuel to fly for two hours and 34 minutes, while its total flight time was recorded at one hour and 33 minutes.
Pakistani investigators are investigating whether the accident was due to a pilot error or a technical problem.
According to a report prepared by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the aircraft’s engines had scraped the runway three times during the pilot’s first attempt to land, causing friction and sparks recorded by the experts.
When the aircraft scraped the ground during the first failed landing attempt, the engine oil tank and the fuel pump may have been damaged and started to leak, preventing the pilot from reaching the thrust and the speed required to secure the plane, the report said. .
The pilot decided “on his own initiative” to undertake a “go-around” after he did not land the first time. It was only during the go-around that ATC was informed that the landing gear was not deploying.
“The pilot received an order from the air traffic controller to increase the aircraft to 3,000 feet, but only succeeded 1,800. When the flight deck was reminded to change to 3,000 feet, the co-pilot said “we are trying,” said the report.
Experts said failure to reach the steered height indicates that the engines were not responding. The aircraft subsequently tilted and crashed suddenly.
The flight crashed in the Jinnah Garden area near Model Colony in Malir on Friday afternoon, a few minutes before it landed at Karachi International Airport in Jinnah. Eleven people on the ground were injured.
The investigation team, chaired by Air Commodore Muhammad Usman Ghani, Chairman of the Aircraft Accident and Investigation Commission, is expected to submit a full report in about three months.
According to the engineering and maintenance department of the PIA, the last check of the plane was carried out on March 21 of this year and it had flown from Muscat to Lahore a day before the accident.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pakistani government authorized operations of limited domestic flights from five major airports – Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta – as of May 16. After the plane’s tragedy, the PIA canceled its domestic operation.
