Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesperson Danyal Gilani on Sunday dismissed the media reports regarding the possibility of a fault in engine of the ill-fated PIA aeroplane before flight.
"It's premature to say that propeller of one the engines of #PK661 had started to spin in reverse. Such reports are speculative and misleading," he said in a statement shared on twitter.
He claimed that some problem developed in engines of the aircraft during flight. He said, "Fact of the matter is that both engines of the aircraft were fully operational at the time of takeoff from Chitral and some problem developed during flight."
Gillani said that the whole incident is being thoroughly investigated by Safety Investigation Board (SIB), which is an independent body working under the Aviation Division.
All items recovered from the site, including cockpit instruments, are part of the evidence and may give valuable insights about the cause of the accident, but cannot provide conclusive evidence in isolation, he viewed.
He assured that SIB would carried out a detailed, independent and transparent inquiry into the matter. Truth should be brought out and shared with the people in the shortest possible time, he said.
The statement went on to say that ATR 42 and 72 aircrafts use engines manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, which has provided more than 13,000 commercial engines to a range of aircraft manufacturers including Boeing and Airbus since 1925, in addition to providing more than 7300 engines for multiple military aircraft.
Meanwhile, a senior SIB official told DawnNews that a four member team would be reaching Pakistan on Monday. The team, comprising two members each from ATR and Pratt & Whitney, will be assisting SIB in investigations into the incident.
The crash site has been cordoned off and now only investigators would be able to visit the ares, SIB official added.
