SINCE 2000 Pakistan’s aviation industry has witnessed a continuous decline in its flight safety record.

The responsibility falls on all those at the helm in Islamabad.

Flight safety can only be ensured through strict regulatory controls and exemplary punishments to serve as deterrence for others.

Till to-date not a single fatal crash occurring in Pakistani airspace jurisdiction involving a CAA-registered aircraft has been properly investigated and a report made public.

Such a report is required by insurance companies to pay the insured amount as compensation which has not been paid to the next of kin of AirBlue and Bhoja crash victims.

The major factor in PIA’s flight safety deterioration is maintenance and flaws in the choice of fleet induction, incompetent and corrupt politically-appointed chief executives and compromises in recruitment.

It all started when brand new DC-10s were sold in the mid-80s in a controversial deal where PIA ended up with aged B747. The decision to appoint an unknown vendor with the sole right of supply for all spare parts led to serious maintenance issues, with the result that the European Union imposed a partial ban on our fleet in 2007.

As if this was not enough, another PIA MD cancelled all manufacturer-approved vendors located on the PIA network without prior approval of the board of directors, and appointed through a letter, dated Sept 24, 2011, an unknown vendor, Transworld Aviation Fze, located in Dubai as sole supplier of all spare parts.

This resulted in half PIA fleet being grounded while PIA ended up surrendering its own inventory of spare parts valued at approximately $1bn.

PIA accumulated losses hiked from Rs42bn in March 2008 to Rs141.3bn by September 2012.

Aneela Chandio

Sukkur

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THIS is about the plane crash near Havelian on Wednesday, killing 47 people.

It is a common practice in Pakistan to pray for the families of victims but no one is really concerned about the cause of their misery.

People of Pakistan die mercilessly, sometimes they die in attacks, somtimes in a plane crash, sometimes their death results from a fire in a building.

What the hell is that? What is going in the state? RIP all the lost souls!

Syed Ghulam Mustafa

Matiari

Published in Dawn December 10th, 2016