ISLAMABAD: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Thursday challenged some findings of the report of a judicial commission on the April 2012 Bhoja Air crash in which 127 passengers, including six crew members, were killed.

Through its counsel Obaid Abbasi, the CAA filed its objections with the Islamabad High Court (IHC). In July 2013, while hearing petitions filed by the families of the victims, the IHC had constituted the commission, comprising retired Justice Ghulam Rabbani, to investigate the air crash. The commission released its report on September 19, 2014.

The report pointed out loopholes in the procedure for renewing the air operator certificate (AOC) of Bhoja Airline and expressed doubts on the proficiency of the pilot.

The commission observed that the renewal of AOC to the airline for the year 2008-10 was made in relaxation of rules.

The CAA, however, disputed the finding and said there was a bar on the wet leasing of aircraft and according to a decision of the secretary defence in 1992 (the then competent authority) “wet leasing of aircraft” from foreign countries would not be allowed except in extraordinary circumstances such as an unforeseen surge in the market demand and a sudden shortage of an airline’s capacity due to an accident/incident.

The CAA contended that the observation of the commission regarding the financial inadequacy of the airline for obtaining the AOC was correct. “However, this inadequacy was duly addressed by the airline by bringing the equity to a positive side. The same was conveyed to the flight standard directorate of the CAA on February 24, 2012.”

The CAA said the commission had failed to appreciate that airworthy aeroplanes were a requirement for the issuance and maintenance of an AOC.

However, during the course of operations, an aeroplane can be unavailable due to different reasons such as the scheduled maintenance checks usually entailing the aircraft’s grounding for about eight to 10 weeks.

This clearly meant that during such a period when an operator has less than three planes the AOC will not be revoked or cancelled.

The CAA requested the court that the commission’s report may not be relied upon.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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