RAWALPINDI: A four-member team of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Operational Safety Audit that was on a week-long audit inspection visit to Pakistan will leave on Friday night after completing the job.

The foreign experts carried out an operational safety audit of different departments of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), including its flight operation, ground handling, flight safety and security and engineering.

The team included a Turkish expert, two Englishmen and another European national.

The operational safety audit is carried out every two years with the last exercise conducted in 2018.

On Monday morning, the foreign team held a meeting and then visited the cargo area of the airport. They also sought the record of the engineering section of the PIA and other relevant documents for audit.

The team spent a busy day on Monday as they visited the airport apron/ramp area where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded.

The team remained at the apron area for more than two hours and carried out inspection of the loading and unloading process. They also carried out inspection of different registers and emails containing the record of occurrences.

On Wednesday, the team inspected ground handling and technical ramp. In addition, the experts inspected the engineering department on Thursday which will continue on Friday.

Sources said the team had its own manual with which the experts compared the standard of the airlines.

The experts will conclude their visit on Friday with a meeting with PIA Chief Executive Officer retired Air Marshal Arshad Malik.

Prior to the team’s visit, the CEO had carried out an inspection of operational installations and other departments and briefed the heads of engineering, ramp service and flight safety departments about the visit of the audit team.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2020