M Zafar Khan Safdar
Civil Aviation Authority Pakistan (CAA) confirmed no survivors of 47 aboard crashed PIA flight PK-661 carrying 42 passengers and 5 crew, which was on the way to Islamabad from Chitral yesterday on 7 December 2016. The ill-fated ATR-42 aircraft departed from Chitral around 3:30pm and was expected to land at Islamabad International Airport at around 4:40pm but crashed in Havelian near Abbottabad shortly after a distress call was sent to the control tower.
The military said 36 bodies had been recovered and rescue efforts involved about 500 soldiers, doctors and paramedics. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said its plane lost contact with the control tower en route to the capital, Islamabad, from the northern region of Chitral. The region is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Pakistan. According to government officials and the eye witnesses, all of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, the debris was scattered and the aircraft crashed in a mountainous area, and before it hit the ground it was on fire.
Junaid Jamshed alongwith his wife, the Deputy Commissioner Chitral Osama Warraich alongwith his wife and little daughter were among the 47 people who lost their lives in the airline crash. Junaid Jamshed was in Chitral for a Tableeghi mission and was returning to Islamabad when the aircraft crashed. He was scheduled to deliver the Friday sermon at Parliament mosque. He was a prominent member of Pakistan’s Tableeghi Jamaat, a global Islamic revivalist movement urging Muslims to return to Sunni Islam.
Jamshed rocketed to fame in Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s as the singer for the Vital Signs rock group, and later launched a solo career, with a string of chart-topping albums and hits. In his last tweet, Jamshed posted pictures of a snow-capped mountain, calling Chitral ‘Heaven on Earth’. According to the flight manifest, there were three people on board with foreign names.
Plane crashes are not uncommon in Pakistan and safety standards are often criticized. In recent years, media have reported on multiple near-misses as planes over-ran runways and engines caught fire.
In 2010, a passenger plane of Air Blue crashed in heavy rain near Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board. Two years later, a plane operated by a private Pakistani company Bhoja Airline, with 127 people on board, crashed near Islamabad. All on board were killed.
PIA has also suffered major disasters in the past. In 1965, a PIA Boeing 707 crashes on its inaugural flight while attempting to land at Cairo airport, killing 124 people. In 1970, a PIA Fokker F27 turboprop aircraft crashes while attempting to take off from Islamabad in a thunderstorm, killing all 30 people on board. On 8 December 1972, a PIA Fokker F27 crashes in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. All 26 people on board are killed. In November 1979, a PIA Boeing 707 bringing home Pakistani Hajj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia crashes shortly after take-off from Jeddah airport, killing 156 people. In 1986, a PIA Fokker F27 crashes while coming in to land in Peshawar, killing 13 of the 54 people on board. On 17 August 1988, a US-made Hercules C-130 military aircraft crashes near Bahawalpur, killing President of Pakistan General Zia-ul-Haq and 30 others including Army Generals and the US ambassador. In 1989, a PIA Fokker carrying 54 people disappears after leaving Gilgit in northern Pakistan. The wreckage is never found. On 28 September 1992, a PIA Airbus A300 crashes into a cloud-covered hillside on approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu after the plane descended too early, killing 167 people.
On 19 February 2003, an air force Fokker F27 crashes in fog-shrouded mountains near Kohat, killing Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali, his wife and 15 others. Just 5 days later, a chartered Cessna 402-B carrying Afghan Mines and Industries Minister Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, four Afghan officials, a Chinese mining executive and two Pakistani crew crashes into the Arabian Sea near the southern city of Karachi. In 2006, a PIA Fokker F27 bound for Lahore crashes into a field and bursts into flames shortly after take-off from the central city of Multan, killing 41 passengers and four crewmembers. In 2010, an Airblue Airbus 321 operated by the private airline Airblue flying from Karachi crashes into hills outside Islamabad while preparing to land, killing all 152 people on board. The same year, a twin-engine plane operated by Pakistani charter JS Air carrying staff from an Italian oil company crashes shortly after take-off in Karachi, killing all 21 people on board. 23 days later, at least 12 people were killed when a Russian-made Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane operated by Georgian airline Sunway crashes in a fireball seconds after taking off from Karachi.
In Pakistan, there is a big question regarding whether international safety standards are followed when it comes to aircrafts. It has not yet emerged on the national radar, but the dismal safety record of the Pakistani airlines is an open secret. While private airlines operating within and out of Pakistan are too small to appear on international airline safety rankings, the national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), though makes several hit lists but all for the wrong reasons. It stands out as an outlier for poor safety record.
A comparative study of airline safety revealed that PIA has consistently underperformed on airline safety, and it is one of the world’s most disaster-prone airlines but the Government, especially the regulators at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), has been negligently silent over the dismal safety records of Pakistan-based airlines. It is time for a serious introspection on the state of airline safety in Pakistan. In fact, one wonders why this matter is not yet an utmost priority for regulators, especially when this lax attitude towards air safety is not just restricted to the national airliner, but also permeates Pakistan’s private carriers, the only other alternatives to flying for Pakistanis.
