MULTAN, July 11: Investigations into Monday’s air crash would take three to four months to reach any conclusion about what led to the tragedy, said Defence Minister Rao Sikander Iqbal on Tuesday.
He was talking to journalists after visiting the site of the crash of Fokker aircraft, which claimed lives of 45 people.
The minister ruled out any responsibility of the crash being caused by an act of sabotage. “Nothing, but a technical fault would have caused the crash,” he said, adding “it was just an accident.”
He said the type of the fault would, however, be ascertained only after a thorough inquiry by experts. He said it was better not to bank on assumptions and rather wait for the outcome of the investigation.
He admitted he had stated on the floor of the National Assembly that the PIA’s fleet of Fokker aircraft had become old. However, he added, none other than the management of the national flag carrier can take decision regarding further operation of Fokker planes.
He said the prescribed airtime life of a Fokker was said to be 90,000 hours and claimed that all PIA Fokker planes had yet to achieve the mark.
The minister announced a compensation of Rs400,000 for the heirs of each victim.
Earlier, Civil Aviation Authority Director-General Air Marshal (retd) Pervez Nawaz said the black box and voice recording of the plane would be sent to manufacturers of Fokker planes in Netherlands for decoding.
He said normally investigations into an air tragedy took almost a year to complete but the experts had collected some vital evidences that would help conclude the inquiry in four months.
Answering a question, he said initial investigations suggested pilots had taken off the aircraft properly, but after that the engines might have experienced ‘loss of power.’
The leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, was also in the town. Speaking at a news conference, he demanded the ‘obsolete’ Fokker planes should be grounded to prevent further tragedies.
Meanwhile, bodies of 44 of the 45 victims were taken away by their heirs from the mortuary of Nishter Hospital.
Funerals prayers of Justice Nazeer Siddiqi, pilot Ibrar Chughtai and incarcerated PML-N leader Javed Hashmi’s niece Kanwal Iqbal were offered on Tuesday.
Mr Hashmi has been released on a three-day parole to participate in the last rites of his niece and her husband Saleem Shah.
