Safe flying

There have been many fatal airline accidents in our country. Such unfortunate disasters could be a function of any one or more reasons such as technical faults in planes, human error attributed to pilots, ground staff or both, or poor infrastructure such as runways and control towers with up-to-date technology. Although after every unfortunate incident, which are a few too many, an inquiry in announced by the government, no report is ever released or concrete steps are taken to avoid similar disasters in the future. Pilots are sluggish, our airports in many cities are located dangerously close to congested populated areas and runways are not well kept.

The recent crash of the PIA plane at Karachi seems to be due to the negligence of the pilot as well as oversight of control tower staff. Such lax behavior that can cause hundreds of fatalities may be due to a lack of continuous training and frequent evaluations of the physical and mental abilities of the air and ground staff. Yet again, lives have been lost because we fail to implement and follow quality training and appraisal procedures in place. The government must take corrective steps on an urgent basis. It must ensure proper training and testing of airline and CAA staff. It must also ensure that airports are well kept with proper runways complying to international level safety standards.

Raja Shafaatullah

Islamabad