CAA told to submit plane crash inquiry report in SHC

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to submit the inquiry report of the Pakistan International Airlines’ plane crash in a Karachi neighbourhood.

The direction came on an application seeking the flight inspection of the national flag carrier’s aeroplanes through international aviation authorities after the tragic incident of May 22. Syed Iqbal Kazmi said in his application that he had filed a petition in the SHC for a judicial inquiry into the December 2016 flight PK-661 crash, in which 42 passengers, including singer-turned-preacher Junaid Jamshed and his wife, and crewmembers had lost their lives.

He lamented that despite several directions issued by the court, the inquiry report of the incident had not been filed by the CAA to date.

He said that during the pendency of the petition, the PIA’s another Airbus A320 crashed on May 22 in the city’s Jinnah Garden (Model Colony) locality, resulting in 97 passengers losing their lives.

The applicant questioned the PIA’s purchase of the Airbus without new assembled engines, saying that the CAA and the PIA were bound to comply with international airworthiness requirements, including the maintenance of the carriers.

He argued that after such incidents occurring in the past, it was the constitutional obligation of the cabinet division secretary, the CAA director general and the PIA chairman to refrain from purchasing outdated planes, using them and risking the lives of passengers and crewmembers.

He requested that the court direct the PIA to ground all of their aeroplanes and conduct flight inspections of its fleet through international or independent aviation authorities.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Omar Sial observed that the high court on May 29 had directed the CAA to submit the outcome of the inquiry of the incident, but the court order was not complied with so far.

The bench issued a notice to the CAA with the direction to comply with the order of the high court on or before the next date of hearing or submit a reason for non-compliance by July 24.

The federal government had issued an initial report of the plane crash, claiming that the incident was a result of human error on the part of the pilots and the air traffic controller who failed to follow aviation protocol. The report also stated that the pilots were distracted due to their conversation about COVID-19.