LAHORE The federal government has yet to make the Multan Fokker crash report public, three years after the tragic incident.
A Civil Aviation Authority official informed Dawn on Thursday that it had submitted the investigation report to the government and it was up to it to make it public. 'The authority on its own cannot reveal anything in this regard,' the official said.
As many as 41 passengers, including two judges of the Lahore High Court, a former principal of the King Edward Medical College and four crew members, lost their lives when the Lahore-bound Fokker (F-27) crashed soon after its take-off from the Multan airport on July 10, 2006.
A three-member team comprising Air Commodore Junaid Amin (head), Wing Commodore Nasim Ahmed and PIA's captain Dara Shah Nawaz had conducted the probe with the help of experts from the US, the UK, France, Germany and Netherlands.
Under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules, it is mandatory for the CAA to make public the findings of the investigation into any aircraft crash.
The federal government even did not bother to share the investigation report with the countries it had sought help from in the process. The ICAO rules also require a member country to formally submit the findings of a plane crash probe to the other members it takes on board during investigation process.
Following the accident, the government had grounded the Fokker fleet.
According to a source in the authority, the ill-fated aircraft F-27, before starting its journey from Islamabad airport, had developed faults in its engine and radio instruments, which delayed its journey to Lahore by 40 minutes. 'The pilot, Capt Hamid Qurehi, had lodged a complaint in this regard but to no avail,' he said.
A fact-finding committee of High Court Bar Association, Multan, had said the aircraft, soon after its take-off (Lahore to Multan), got de-tracked for about 25 miles towards the eastern side of the Pakistani border due to flawed navigation system. The fact of plane's losing direction was brought to the pilot's knowledge, who responded that he had complained about the navigation system and other defects in the aircraft repeatedly but no body cared to remove them.
The source said the record proved that Capt Qureshi was overworked and fatigued and he was called to fly the aircraft after the rest of only 'six hours'. 'This practice still goes on despite frequent protests by pilots. A senior PIA pilot has been recently censured for pointing out induction of overworked co-pilot in his crew,' he said.
According to a senior CAA official, the crash was primarily the outcome of 'human error'. He said one of the two engines of the 42-year-old plane had stopped working at the time of take-off and the pilot could not timely pull up the landing gear within the altitude of 400 feet. The plane crashed within one minute and 12 seconds of take-off.
The aircraft was manufactured in 1964 and bought by PIA in 1979 after remaining operational for fifteen years. It had a recommended 28 years of life (non-extendable).
