THIS is apropos of the letter by Syed Naseem (Aug 24) on the tragic air accident involving Airblue A321 and the CAA's pathetic handling in the post-accident period.

Instead of a regulatory body responsible for ensuring flight safety, it has become a dumping ground for political appointees, retired khaki pilots and members of the bureaucracy, all of them having one thing in common their inexperience in commercial civil aviation.

A glaring example of this is the choice of people posted to the CAA or to the ICAO in Montreal.

Moments after the accident had occurred, instead of professional investigators and trained rescue workers at the scene of the accident, there were either unskilled hired labourers or members of paramilitary units gathered at the scene.

In spite of the fact that this unfortunate accident occurred in the jurisdiction of Islamabad, there was total chaos. Reports of items belonging to the unfortunate passengers of the ill-fated flight being scavenged are evidence of the chaos that prevailed. Everybody was there except the CAA.

Our high air accident record suggests the incompetence of the CAA in performing its basic task of regulating aviation safety and monitoring maintenance procedures, or pilot skills and their medical surveillance.

Incidents involving repetitive engine failures, poor maintenance, or pilots busting flight duty time limits and rest requirements have become more frequent.

A popular website on the Internet reported that a PIA pilot had recently done duty of over 35 hours which is scary indeed.

The lax on the part of the CAA has allowed pilots to work beyond the national age of retirement, without any evaluation of local and national health and average life expectancy.

Giving such extensions just because it is being done in developed societies, whose national retirement age and life expectancy is more than 65 years, shows a lack of professional competence.

TASSADAQ MIR
Lahore