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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.
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Comments (32) Closed
Dec 11, 2016 06:28pm
Media should act responsibly and refrain from making unfounded claims.
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Dec 11, 2016 06:43pm
Engine was perfect.
Pilot was well experienced.
Weather was absolutely clear.
There was no terrorist action.
ATR company is the best aircraft manufacturer in the world.
Bottomline is; it's the end of the story!
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Dec 11, 2016 06:55pm
Issuing statement and denials of media reports, PIA management should focus on improving its records, performance, maintenance and reputation of the airline. It makes no difference what anyone says in the media, but the perception of the traveling public, their experience, feedback and observations makes a huge difference.
Someone missing even an Emirate flight, will probably say nasty things about the company - which is otherwise one of the best airlines in the world.
It is about the experience and perception. This is where PIA is failing.
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Dec 11, 2016 06:58pm
The air crashes don't happen without a reason and all of a sudden.There are series of events which take place before the crash. One thing is sure that there was a serious problem with one engine and tell tale signs were overlooked/ overruled. Was there a reason why an aviation engineer was on board? I am not sure if the investigation team is competent and independent but am satisfied with ATR team and Engine manufacturer experts who are participating in the investigation.
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Dec 11, 2016 06:59pm
Your enquiry will never produce any professional outcome. PIA has unfortunately a bad record of accidents that has tarnished its image besides its poor service. The day you guys become serious with your job, people will not die hard like this due to your gross negligence.
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Dec 11, 2016 06:59pm
What else to expect from PIA officials. In our beloved country no one takes responsibility for their actions, from PMO to the the lowly farrash (peon).
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Dec 11, 2016 07:02pm
Misleading, confusing, obsfuscating, mis-truths and lies....
I doubt anyone would trust these bunch of liars....
Because there is no accoutability fot mis-management , there is just as non existent accountability for telling lies...
Alas, the pilot is dead otherwise these Noon Leaguers would have arrested him just like they do with train drivers after train accidents.
Mentality and inner psyche is obvious for their behaviors.
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Dec 11, 2016 07:09pm
Everyone should boycott PIA to ensure the airline is forced to reduce its staff, remove corrupt officials, and reorganize the airline so that safety and customer service are given priority. The employees are shameless leeches that are playing with the lives of passengers.
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Dec 11, 2016 07:16pm
OK. So use these things for Politicians and Ministers.
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Dec 11, 2016 07:53pm
@M.Saeed Professionalism is our biggest weakness. If I may use an urdu term, we have a nation full of 'phapay kutnis' - LOL.
We lack regulation and the regulation for regulating the regulators, as well as their independant and impartial appointment. Its a mess!
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Dec 11, 2016 09:00pm
Criminal negligence of PIA caused the death of innocent passengers including the sad death of famous Pakistani celebrity Junaid Jamshaid. PIA must be sued for their irresponsibility, incompetence and lack of safety standards.
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Dec 11, 2016 09:13pm
It seems ultimately the poor pilot will be blamed for the crash and the case closed down, what a shame.
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Dec 11, 2016 10:06pm
According to PIA spokesperson Mr Gillani, both engines were operational at take off, visibility was fine, no stormy weather and the pilot was experienced, so what happened why the plane crashed?Do you want us to believe this
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Dec 11, 2016 10:33pm
In an aircraft accident, the most important thing is to find out facts and reason for an accident, unfortunately the people responsible in doing so are either from CAA (who are responsible for safety) or from PAF (who are not at all knowledgeable on civil aviation matters) if the CAA team is headed by a PAF retired officer than they will simply defend themselves and will never find the cause.
Can we for a change get some international neutral investigators to probe and recommend so we can actually find the correct cause without hiding facts and avoid future re-occurrence.
Can we please get the CAA as a neutral body without Airforce influence as PIA and CAA both were far ahead when they were lead by civilians (exception Nur Khan)
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Dec 11, 2016 10:51pm
Investigation should be conducted by independent forensic scientists and not by the agents of airplane maufacturers... the reputation of this ATR is at stake and chances are that their own investigation may not be as transparent as it should be.
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Dec 11, 2016 11:04pm
I said earlier they will never explain the true cause of such tragedy and keep confusing the general public. If everything was fine then why that happened?
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Dec 11, 2016 11:22pm
Let the accident investigators do their jobs.
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Dec 11, 2016 11:32pm
This is simply considered as a man slaughter, lack of funds effects pilots training.
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Dec 12, 2016 12:00am
@M.Saeed investigate them and then theyll be found
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Dec 12, 2016 12:17am
Mr. Danial no one is questioning the quality of engines produced by Pratt & Whitney but best engine needs best maintenance as well. Recently another PIA's ATR engine caught fire while taking off from Multan airport which shows there is something seriously wrong with their maintenance & immediate attention is needed rather than remaining in a denial mode.
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Dec 12, 2016 12:19am
This is what happens when a nation is led by corrupt leaders.
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Dec 12, 2016 01:55am
Mr. Gilani, who is the spoke person of PIA, is not qualified to comment on technical aspects of aviation. He has been placed by some influential leaders and higher Management of PIA who have hardy any airline experience.
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Dec 12, 2016 02:38am
@Joe I agree with you with out us the public at large taking some action nothimg good will.come out of this tragedy
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Dec 12, 2016 02:42am
I agree with Joe, without us the public @ large nothing good will come out of this tragedy.
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Dec 12, 2016 05:22am
Until PIA is privatised, conflict of interest questions will plague any and all investigations by CAA.
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Dec 12, 2016 05:26am
@Sukhera the ATR team will probably submit their report to the CAA and it will never see the light of day.
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Dec 12, 2016 05:31am
@Joe no need for a boycott, if an alternate is available, most people just don't use PIA. Why else do you think SkyTrax ranked it the best of the bottom ten.
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Dec 12, 2016 05:35am
All ATRs should be grounded till they figure out the cause of the accident. Safety comes first. People should stop flying in this aircraft No govt will fix PIA. It's in public's hands; stop flying PIA till they fix everything. When money stops coming in two things will happen: either PIA will go bankrupt or things will improve. Either solution is acceptable
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Dec 12, 2016 06:08am
PIA's self assessment and evaluation has zero value!
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Dec 12, 2016 07:42am
Everything is fine for pia except the passengers as they claim no problem in planes, pilots, engineers, ground technical staff, but incident like pk661 does happen???
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Dec 12, 2016 12:04pm
If every thing ok why piolet told about engine failure.why piolet failed to save the plain on the other
engine.
The prime emergency time gave the impression.
1,Atr can not fly on one engine.
2 ,Atr can not glide.
3,poor emergency landing knowedge.
4,conformation of plain maintenance was poor.
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Dec 13, 2016 12:19am
@Haider Ali and so is your knowledge! Any accident should not be judged and prosecuted by non-professionals who don't know zilch about aircraft and aviation. Let the investigation team finish its job and improve your English in the mean time. Otherwise you will keep on blaming "Piolets and Plains". For your information, all twin engine airplanes have a single engine capability, a gliding distance and ratio, all pilots are fully trained and retrained in emergency procedures and yes, the maintenance practices could be questionable.
When the government wanted to privatize PIA, opposition political parties having their "labor unions" with in PIA created hell. All political appointees must be fired but once privatized, people will blame the private owners like they do in case of Shaheen Air and Airblue if God forbid, some thing happens.
We have become a whining nation!
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