CAA clarifies report

Published February 27, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: The Civil Aviation Authority has claimed that the Fokker crash inquiry was conducted in accordance with international standards.

Clarifying a news item published in Dawn on Monday, ‘Findings of Multan Fokker Crash Probe Questioned’, CAA spokesman said foreign agencies and experts were involved in the investigation.

He said the allegation that certain clauses of the accident investigation manual had been skipped was baseless.

The CAA reiterated its stance that all navigational, communication, route approach and visual aids were at optimum level.

Our reporter adds: The Dawn report was based on statements of a senior CAA official, the accident investigation manual and some CAA documents.

The CAA clarification did not address issues raised in the report, like overdue calibration, the Walton airport crash and the crash of a CAA aircraft in Sharjah.

It may be mentioned that the overdue calibration issue was raised by the National Assembly Defence Committee, but the required information was not provided to the legislators.