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LAHORE, Sept 30: Senior officials of the Civil Aviation Authority visited the Walton airport on Saturday, a day after a two-seater light sports aircraft crashed during landing, to examine the runway and other facilities. The crash left the veteran pilot and his friend dead.
CAA Safety Investigation Board president Air Commodore Junaid Amin and member, Wing Commander Naseem Ahmad, came from Karachi for the examination and expressed hope that the inquiry report would be completed in a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, a survey reveals that the Walton airport is lacking in trained fire-fighting staff as well as proper security officials.
There are five flying clubs operating at the airport with members from all walks of life. The clubs are the Lahore Flying Club, the Hydrant Aviation, the Wings Aviation, the JGP Aviation, and the Ultra-light Sports and Flying Club.
A fire station does exist at the airport with two fire-tenders and as many vehicles which are ill-equipped.
An employee of a local flying club complained that the fire-fighting unit and the local security were not up to the mark. “We have repeatedly requested the airport management to equip the airport with all emergency services but to no avail,” he said.
“The airport is open from one side and any body can enter or leave runway any time, though no body should be there during take-off or landing of a plane,” said a pilot asking not to be named.
“People daily trespass on the runway during flying hours and I do not know why the CAA staff does not check this practice,” he wondered.
There are 15 security officials for the airport but they hardly perform their duties of protecting the runway and other airport installations, he alleged.
However, the air traffic control is working according to its schedule from dawn to dusk.
Advocate Abdul Majeed Bhutta, 55, and retired employee of Askari Pharmaceuticals Syed Munawar Husain, 60, had died in the air crash on Friday.
Mr Bhutta is survived by his wife and four daughters, two of them married while Mr Munawar has left behind his widow and four unmarried daughters.
FAMILY REACTIONS: Meanwhile, the families of the victims have reacted differently to the incident.
The family of Mr Bhutta, a resident of RA Bazaar, regretted that the club officials did not hand over the body in a decent manner.
“At least they should have handed over the body in coffin but they treated it with the least care. We had been handed over the body at 10:30pm after great effort as we were told that the defence ministry was not allowing the handing over of the body to heirs,” said Mahmoodul Hassan, brother-in-law of Mr Bhutta.
He said Mr Bhutta was a trained pilot and had been flying the aircraft for 30 years. He did not rule out any technical fault in the plane which was in the air when it crashed.
The family of Mr Munawar termed the incident a natural disaster, saying they held no one responsible for the accident.
Ahmad Raza, a nephew of Mr Munawar, said his uncle and Mr Bhutta had been friends for the last 40 years and the latter had asked his uncle many times to fly with him.
Mr Munawar, a resident of 178-R in Model Town, had served different pharmaceutical companies during his career and nowadays he was dealing in shares business in the Lahore Stock Exchange. He was the sole bread-earner of his family.
