May 10, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 9: Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Tanvir Hussain Syed informed the National Assembly on Wednesday that an inquiry report received by the defence ministry about the last year’s crash of a PIA Fokker plane in Multan that killed 45 people had blamed the incident on a failure of the airline’s engineering department and a lack of experience of the plane’s two pilots.

He promised to present to the house the report of the inquiry by a senior air force officer after Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal recovered from his illness.

He quoted the report as revealing that while a bearing of one defective engine had been manually fitted with a hammer, the pilot and co-pilot had discovered a depleting thrust in the other engine as well while taxiing and yet decided to take off.

In response to a call-attention notice from four ruling party members complaining of what they called “sub-standard spare parts of aviation” purchased by the PIA through a Canada-based firm, Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain asked Mr Syed to make a report to the house along with a report he is due to submit by May 15 about allegedly faulty traffic control systems of the Civil Aviation Authority.-—Raja Asghar