Aviation authority shares findings of black box report for Abbottabad plane crash

E-Paper | July 23, 2026

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Thursday shared its findings from black box data recovered from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-661.

Flight PK-661, carrying 48 passengers and crew, had crashed on the way to Islamabad from Chitral on Dec 7, 2016.

There were no survivors from the ill-fated flight.

CAA Secretary Irfan Elahi shared the authority's findings with the Senate Standing Committee on Rules of Procedures and Privileges, DawnNews reported.

According to the secretary, both engines of the aircraft were running "100%" fine when the plane took off from Chitral.

He also revealed that one of the plane's engines was working when the plane crashed, but black box data indicates that no effort was made to land the aircraft before the crash was reported.

Elahi said investigations are still ongoing to determine why the plane crashed despite one of its engines being functional.

Sharing details of the black box report, the CAA secretary said the first call to the control room was made at 4:12pm, and the pilot's voice was seemingly "calm" when he made the call.

Two minutes later, at 4:14pm, the pilot issued a May Day call, saying one of the engines had stopped working.

At 4:17pm, the plane altered its course east instead of heading south, at which point the control room tried to get in touch with the pilot.

The last communication with the pilot was recorded at 4:17pm.

10 to 15 minutes later, the plane was reported to have crashed, Elahi revealed.

He said the data from the black box is "100 per cent" unaltered, and that the investigation was conducted independently, without any involvement of the CAA or PIA.

Elahi also revealed that the prime minister had travelled on the same plane to Gwadar one week before the crash.

Aviation expert Air Commodore Jamal Hussain, while speaking to DawnNews, said the plane was out of "control", "maybe something bumped into it"; however, he added that making speculations right now would be unfair.

He further said the black box report is independent of the CAA and the CAA is not trying to cover up any alleged negligence on its part.

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javed

Jan 12, 2017 05:40pm

As most people already suspect, eventually the reports will blame 'Pilot Error' because he is dead and that is the easiest to do.

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Jason

Jan 12, 2017 05:53pm

Still the fact remains that the pilot has on the flight manifest stating that one of the engines is not working. Wrong place to note it, but clearly evident. Not sure what the ground engineer has to say, if there is such a thing in Chitral... Obviously no equipment to fix the issue, I would imagine!

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Karima shah

Jan 12, 2017 05:51pm

Amateur hour is the order of the day at PIA. Where is the detailed report? What do they mean by engines were working"fine"? Were the engines generating full thrust? What percentage? Was the rudder jammed? Did the tail break off in flight causing the loss of control? This is the problem in Pakistan..There is no effort to be fully transparent. Until all these questions are answered independently, this is just another government bureaucrat reading what his master's told him to read.

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shahan

Jan 12, 2017 05:56pm

Even if it is pilot error, why are there no procedures to fix such errors ? Was the pilot working under stress ? Was the pilot working for several hours ? If any of these questions are YES, then it is not a pilot error but the error on PIA

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Sheraz

Jan 12, 2017 06:00pm

Wow!! So basically the CAA is trying to prove that pilot was mad and wanted to commit suicide.

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Akram Khan

Jan 12, 2017 05:58pm

Well, I dont see how lightly people claim 'Pilot Error' would always be made up. Maybe head up to the CAA website and read the actual transcripts for Bhoja Air and Air Blue disasters and judge for yourself.

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Dr. Hamid Gul

Jan 12, 2017 06:02pm

Investigation is done, money spent, now added more confusions to existing confusions. If both the engines were working fine during takeoff and then one engine was fine until the crash why no attempt was made to land the plane or returned to the airport?

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Ashad Shaikh

Jan 12, 2017 06:03pm

Sacrifice another goat justifying this confusing investigation report. Even God can't save orphan PIA. Simply avoid flying PIA if you love your family.

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Mujtaba

Jan 12, 2017 06:06pm

Hope people dont blame the pilot as he had a youtube account where he posted lots of videos flying planes in the same area that means he had experience.

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Houlbelat

Jan 12, 2017 06:06pm

How could the pilot be calm and still sent the mayday signal?

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Hatim

Jan 12, 2017 06:10pm

If the investigation was independent, then why is CAA making it public and not the people that conducted it?

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KHALID YOUSAFZAI (UK)

Jan 12, 2017 06:14pm

@Ashad Shaikh I live in UK and travel very often to Pakistan, Now I never travel by PIA

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Harun Ahamed

Jan 12, 2017 06:14pm

Time-pass has a limit PIA has crossed all limits. The airline is not all sincere about safety of passengers. The quality of report tell the truth.

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Houlbelat

Jan 12, 2017 06:13pm

If the last communication with the pilot was recorded at 4:17pm. and 10 to 15 minutes later, the plane was reported to have crashed, why there is no definite time of crash after the last communication? Why is the flight recorder so vague that it has a 5 minutes of error in saying 10 to 15 minutes ?

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Dead houbara bustard

Jan 12, 2017 06:17pm

This known as "Khuda Hafiz" report. No one can find the cause, not even the God.

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Murtaza

Jan 12, 2017 06:26pm

They will never tell the truth. The initial findings are absolutely ill logical. Story can be summarised as under:- "Engines were working, the plane was under control. One of its ENGINES developed a fault. PIOLOT didn't make an emergency landing effort. It was the best aircraft bcz PM had also travelled on it. NO BLAME ON PIA. " Actually some JINNY struck with the Aircraft.

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Sjaf

Jan 12, 2017 07:40pm

This may give more credence to the rumour that one of the engines may have started running in reverse. But this is just an unsubstantiated rumour.

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Faisal

Jan 12, 2017 07:54pm

This investigation, unsurprisingly, is heading towards routine PIA/CAA closure which blames the pilot.

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syed

Jan 12, 2017 08:30pm

"CAA secretary said the data from the black box is "100 per cent" unaltered, and that the investigation was conducted independently, without any involvement of the CAA or PIA." So why you as a CAA secretary is releasing this info?

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Dr Husain, MD

Jan 12, 2017 08:32pm

The world has moved forward in investigations and here it feels we have ignorant children 2-3 year old giving details of things that don't make sense Let's be honest. This is Pakistan, we are Pakistanis , we don't care about standards or improvements to go assess things so that it doesn't happen again !

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FOURTHEYE

Jan 12, 2017 08:52pm

Is there any external cause for engine failure, like a missile attack or any sort of external attack that was not understood by the pilot. People inside may not know what impacted to engine fail, even if one failed at such altitude, there could be chance to land the aircraft. Any terrorist act or military exercise could have caused, need to look into finer details.

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Joe

Jan 12, 2017 08:56pm

There are pilots who have landed plane with a single WING.

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FAROOOQ

Jan 12, 2017 09:02pm

hog wash.... they think we are stupid!!

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Shah, Canada

Jan 12, 2017 09:06pm

Sorry to say looks like cover up... How is one engine failed and pilot did not try to diver/land. Do not blame only on pilots.

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FAROOOQ

Jan 12, 2017 09:06pm

They would have had the pilot arrested liek they do with the train drivers....the CAA dishonesty is incredulous....have they ever, accepted responsibility ever!!! never is teh answer. Even after the attack on karachi airport...it was CAA which was found actually commending the planning and execution capabilities of terrorist...not a word that it was their reponsibility to protect airport. ASF is their sub-department .

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Anis Motiwala

Jan 12, 2017 10:14pm

Reminds me of the famous Hudson Plane Crash ... the authorities said one engine was working but eventually retracted their statement.... a hero of a pilot became zero then hero again.....

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Syed F. Hussaini

Jan 12, 2017 10:28pm

The pilot issued a May Day call at 4:14 and the control room tried to get in touch with the pilot at 4:17. This is a three-minute laps; what took the control room so long to respond to the May Day call? What did the control room say to the pilot? The first call to the control room was made at 4:12, the pilot's voice was calm but what did he say? Did the control room respond to this first call--what did it say? Was there any response to the first call at all from the control room? Was the control room really manned? Was the plane-to-control room communications equipment working? This is data from the plane's recorder; where are the transcripts from the control room recorders?

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SaeEd

Jan 12, 2017 10:32pm

These days majority of the accident happened due to pilot error. Plane safety options are now much higher only pilots needs to upgrade them self. These kind of investigation some time take 2 to 3 years to finished as huge finiacial and criminal factor involved. So all the skeptic just concentrate on there own work and let the other people do there work.

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Merchant

Jan 12, 2017 10:42pm

PIA is being slowly dismantled and it remains to be seen which political partty creates a private airline belonging to their party leader and on the ashes of PIA.

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Syed F. Hussaini

Jan 12, 2017 10:47pm

The term black box applies to two different devices--flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder: Did the CAA secretary share data from both the devices or just one?

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Sameer

Jan 12, 2017 10:55pm

CAA: one engine was working fine... So one engine was NOT working fine. Nice. Try driving a car on a flat tyre matey.

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Syed F. Hussaini

Jan 12, 2017 11:07pm

The CAA "...shared its findings from black box data..." "He said... the investigation was conducted independently, without any involvement of the CAA or PIA." The above two statements contradict each other; the findings could not be termed the CAA's findings. Who conducted the investigation so far and who is conducting the still ongoing investigations.

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Shafiq Shah

Jan 12, 2017 11:21pm

What was that sacrificing a black goat. I have never seen such a sacrificial event before the take off of the plane. I believe plane was technically unfit to take off. Relevant people knew it. Rest of the story is just a smoke screen to hid the truth.

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Syed F. Hussaini

Jan 12, 2017 11:23pm

Mid-air aircraft engine failure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHoBmD3S2YY

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ROHAN

Jan 12, 2017 11:27pm

@Mujtaba I will DISAGREE with these reports. You can goto his youtube channel and you'll notice MANY video - HOWEVER, none of the videos are of him walking around the cabib - its all from a stationed GoPro. I have a feeling, the authorities have found a way to blame the crew and pilot and ...well they are dead

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khujlee

Jan 13, 2017 12:08am

@Dead houbara bustard : Agreed :)

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Salman

Jan 13, 2017 12:53am

@Sjaf plane engines can never run in reverse

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throwaway

Jan 13, 2017 01:52am

PIA has many faults and totally needs to get its act straight. Having said that, people really need to stop spreading false statements and personal opinions. 1. Over 50% of plane crashes are the result of pilot error. 2. Statements like "flight manifest stating engine is not working" are inaccurate. It's criminal to let a plane fly with known faults. Also, unless the pilots were suicidal, they simply won't fly a plane with an engine not working. 3. This is a newspaper report and is meant for general consumption. If you want all the gory details, wait for the actual report to come out and be made public. It'll most certainly be available online.

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numbersnumbers

Jan 13, 2017 03:49am

Where is transcript from the cockpit voice recorder? Conversations in cockpit before crash are vitally important in understanding what happened! Also black box flight recorder has detailed logs of all aircraft flight control settings and positions, so that flight can be duplicated in a modern flight simulator.

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Desi

Jan 14, 2017 07:30pm

Investigation of accidents like this takes years, if not months and CAA was able to find the cause in a month. That is unbelievable. This was just protocol to put the blame pilot for the accident nothing else. All accidents involving Pakistani aircrafts are always pilots faults. You know why, because we don't have people who know how to conduct investigation and bring the real reason of the accident to light. Blaming the pilots shuts the case.

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