RAWALPINDI: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat has called for a thorough investigation into the crash of Pakistan International Airlines A-320 plane in Karachi to ascertain real causes behind the incident which claimed 97 precious lives.

The committee, during a meeting held on Tuesday, observed that the incident took place despite reported unquestionable airworthiness of the plane and experience of the pilots; therefore, its reasons should be identified to avoid re-occurrence of such incidents.

The committee was informed that a 12-member investigation team, including aviation experts, representatives of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), PIA and Boeing company and a psychologist, had conducted examination of the debris of the aircraft and recording of conversation of the pilots with the control tower in the black box during the course of investigation.

The preliminary investigation revealed that airworthiness of the aircraft was unquestionable, the weather was favorable, the pilot and the co-pilot were experienced, but there were quite a few deviations by the pilot and the air traffic controller from the prescribed procedures, the committee was told.

Directs authorities to ensure resumption of PIA flights to Europe

Aviation Division Secretary Hassan Nasir Jamy informed the panel that the inquiry into the tragic incident would be completed within eight to 10 months and its report would be presented to the committee.

Read: Initial report finds human error on part of pilots, ATC officials in PIA crash: aviation minister

Taking up the issue of suspension of PIA flights to Europe, including the United Kingdom, the panel directed the authorities concerned to pursue the resumption of flights to Europe with the European and British airspace authorities.

The committee was apprised that PIA flights to European destinations and UK were discontinued over five different issues related to safety management of aircraft and passengers.

A PIA representative informed the committee that the objections of the European and UK authorities had been addressed; however, the flights would be resumed on clearance by the European and UK airspace agencies.

The official said that keeping in view the problems faced by the Pakistani diaspora and foreign nationals intending to travel to Pakistan by PIA, alternative arrangements had been made on a code sharing basis. He said that code sharing agreements had been made with Etihad Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines.

The committee was also apprised about the dubious licences of PIA pilots or pilots carrying licences issued by the CAA.

The committee observed that the case had brought disgrace to the country, besides putting a question mark on the veracity of all licences issue by the CAA. The panel members observed that none of the officials of the CAA had been held responsible for issuing dubious licences .

The committee asked the Aviation Division to complete the inquiry so that the officials responsible for issuing dubious licences could be identified and taken to task.

The commit­tee was informed that a Board of Inquiry had been constituted to investigate violations/malpractices observed in issuance of flight crew licences and in the light of the finding of the board, 28 licences had been cancelled and 193 suspended, apart from referring the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for an inquiry.

“The FIA has made considerable progress in the inquiry into pilots’ suspicious licences since July 24,” the aviation secretary said and added: “Serious violations of flight duty time limitations have been noticed by the Board of Inquiry.”

The aviation secretary said the CAA had verified/cleared 200 licences of Pakistani pilots whose names were received from civil aviation authorities of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Ethiopia, the UAE, Vietnam, Bahrain, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

The committee was also briefed on the plan for bifurcation of the Civil Aviation Authority. The aviation secretary said the authority at present was performing its functions as a regulatory and service provider agency and after the implementation of bifurcation plan, two separate entities would be established. He said a law in this regard would be presented before parliament within two months.

Referring to alleged mismanagement in recruitment in the CAA and the Airport Security Force, MNA Ali Nawaz Awan suggested formation of a an “internal grievance cell” to make the officials concerned answerable on public complaints.

MNA Mohsin Dawar suggested calling a joint meeting of the CAA and PIA to resolve major issues as they blamed each other.

The committee meeting was presided over by MNA Kishwer Zahra and attended by Muhammad Aslam Khan, Uzma Riaz, Rana Iradat Sharif Khan, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Naeema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, Syed Mehmood Shah and senior officials of the Aviation Division and Airport Security Force.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2020