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Thursday March 28, 2024

Families identify personal effects of PIA crash victims in three-day display

By Oonib Azam
July 14, 2020

The personal effects of those who had perished in the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash in Karachi on May 22 were put on display in a large room of the Airport Hotel near Star Gate from Saturday, July 11 to Monday, July 13.

The family members of the deceased visited the hotel for three days to attempt to identify the items belonging to their loved ones. They, however, lamented that the items from only the hand luggage of the deceased were put on display and not their baggage.

They said that the valuables, Pakistani currency and dollars, and other recovered items that the Pakistan Rangers had handed over to the PIA back in May were also not put on display.

Ninety-seven passengers had lost their lives two days before Eidul Fitr, when the PIA flight PK-8303 crashed in the Model Colony neighbourhood, situated opposite the Jinnah International Airport.

The insurance

PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez told The News that since the national flag carrier is a signatory to the Montreal Convention, which is a multilateral treaty concerning compensation for the victims of air disasters, it has got its planes insured with the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL).

He said the NICL has partnered with UK-based Marsh, which is a business of US-based Marsh & McLennan Companies, adding that the insurance has three components: planes, passengers and their property, and collateral damage. He also said Marsh has hired another company, Blake, to process matters related to May’s crash.

The display

Rings, bracelets, bangles, broken mobile phones, other gadgets, mobile covers, laptops, passports, ID cards, university enrolment cards, army badges, door keys, watches, clips, hairbands, wallets, debit cards, prayer beads, a small-sized copy of the holy Quran and caps were tagged with numbers and displayed on three rectangular tables covered with a white cloth.

On another table were placed two laptops, on which the families were to identify the belongings of the deceased that for some unknown reasons were not physically put on display.

The ‘discourtesy’

Omar Siddiqui, 42, lost his mother Dr Yasmeen Akbani in the crash. He and his father reached the Airport Hotel on Saturday and identified his mother’s earrings, necklace, red agate ring, intact handheld vanity mirror, CNIC cards and its copies, driving licence, medical licence, mobile phone and tablet.

On the laptops he identified his mother’s purse, sunglasses, comb, visiting cards and reading glasses. “I have mentioned the tag numbers of all the items in a form provided by the PIA officials,” he said, adding that he is expecting a call by Wednesday to receive all of his mother’s personal effects.

However, seeing his mother’s belongings on the laptops perturbed Siddiqui. “There were dozens of family members in the hall, crowding around the two small laptops,” he said, adding that his father even asked the PIA officials to display the pictures of the personal effects on a large screen.

“The PIA officials didn’t even have the courtesy to inform the families through text or phone call about the display,” he said, adding that he had no idea that the belongings of the deceased were being put on display.

“We were told about the display by one of our friends who found out about it on social media,” he said, adding that after he contacted the PIA officials, he was told that they had already got an advertisement published in a few Urdu dailies.

Arif Faruqui, who lost his wife and three children in the crash, appeared to be agitated outside the Airport Hotel on Sunday evening.

“My mother had called my wife’s phone a week after the crash, and it rang,” he shared with The News.

The only thing he could identify was a debit card that belonged to him. “It was inside a purse, which was inside [another] purse. I have only that card and nothing else. From [the belongings] of my three children and wife, all I got is a card. There’s no suitcase, no clothes, no toys.”

He pointed out how during a news conference the Rangers had shown the luggage and money that wasn’t damaged by water or oil. “We were told that those can’t be displayed because they’re hazardous. We don’t mind the smell, the burn; we’ve seen worse,” he said.

Even Siddiqui expressed his concern about the luggage that wasn’t put on display, saying that he had no idea about it and when it would be handed over to them.

Dr Muhammad Mohsin Aman lost his mother Shahnaz Parveen in the crash. He said the list of luggage shared by the Rangers had his mother’s name and her bag, which had her documents, cheque books and other items. But, he added, none of these had been put on display.

The process

Earlier, Dr Aman and Faruqui had said that the team of Blake had told them that the families would be able to get the rest of the belongings in a year. However, said Aman, now the PIA had assured them that the rest of the luggage would be displayed in a month’s time.

Hafeez explained that the luggage was classified in three groups. He said that the identifiable items, including ornaments, ID cards, documents and electronics, have been cleaned and displayed.

However, he added, for the financial tender documents such as cash, cheque books and travel cheques, a few are half-burnt, soaked in fuel. He also said that Blake is processing all these and drying them through their dryers and machines.

As for the main luggage, the PIA spokesman said the company will have to take them back to the UK, where they will clean them and then hand them over to the airline in four week’s time.