ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has issued a condolence note to the families of the victims of flight PK-661 that crashed in Havailian on Wednesday.

The statement said that PIA’s ATR-42 aircraft carrying 40 passengers from Chitral to Islamabad lost contact with the control tower. The ATR’s crash is the third aircraft accident in six years among flights to Islamabad, and no reason has been given for the crash so far.

In July 2010, Airblue flight ABQ-202 flying from Karachi to Islamabad missed its course and crashed into the Margalla Hills, killing all 152 people on board. The investigation into the crash was presented to then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Aug 3, 2011, and the pilot was blamed for the crash.

On April 20, 2012, a Bhoja Air Boeing 737 from Karachi crashed in the fields on the outskirts of Islamabad, killing 121 passengers and six crew members.

The crash caused uproar and led to challenges for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the aviation industry in the country. The public pressure over the possible lack of safety standards in the aviation sector also formed the government to set up a separate Aviation Division.

In 2013, the Airport Security Force (ASF), PIA and CAA were transferred from the defence ministry to the Cabinet Secretariat’s Aviation Division, which is answerable to the prime minister.

After pressure from the families of the victims, the CAA finally released its final 78-page investigation report on Jan 21, 2015, which cited technical misjudgments on the part of the pilots in bad weather as the reason for the crash.

The delay in the CAA’s report had also forced the victims’ relatives to approach the Peshawar and Islamabad high courts seeking a judicial inquiry into the Airblue and Bhoja plane crashes.

The investigation into the 2012 crash was opened by the CAA and the Safety Investigation Board of Pakistan, and the CAA was assisted by Boeing.

The cockpit’s voice recorder was recovered from the wreckage on April 21, and passed on to the CAA, and was sent to the United States along with the flight’s data recorder for analysis by Boeing.

The CAA’s final investigation said ineffective flight desk management by the pilots in adverse weather conditions caused the crash.

The investigators also said the airline was at fault, as the pilots did not have the adequate flight experience, training and level of competence.

The first officer lacked formal simulator training in handling an automated flight deck, while the operator did not have a pilot’s professional competence and skill level monitoring system.

The report also included several key recommendations for airlines in the country, including that all operators in Pakistan must ensure that customised applicable aircraft documents to be approved by the CAA are procured before the launch of flight operations.

The report also emphasised the strict implementation of the CAA approved operational manual by the flight crew, as well as the need for a mechanism where cockpit crew can share their views freely with the appropriate supervisory levels to highlight deficiencies in their training for the safe conduct of flights, and for the close monitoring and tracking of simulator training waivers and extensions for the cockpit crew.

According to the Aviation Division, these recommendations are largely being implemented.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2016