ISLAMABAD – Stunning Revelations Reported in the initial investigationsreport by CAA over ill-fated crashed PIA flight PK 8303.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has highlighted a number of violationsmade by the captain of ill-fated Pakistan International Airline (PIA)aircraft that crashed on May 22.
The report was sent by the Additional Director Operations of Civil AviationAuthority to PIA’s safety department on Tuesday. It revealed that the pilotof the Airbus A320 aircraft avoided several instructions of the air trafficcontroller (ATC).
The report highlighted that the plane was at high altitude before itsapproach point and the ATC had warned the pilot of PK-8303 about it. Theaircraft was at 3,500 feet at four nautical miles that are considered highfrom the approach profile.——————————
Moreover, the speed of the aircraft was more than 250 knots before landingwhich is higher than the required acceleration.
The air traffic controller warned the captain twice and asked him to turnthe jet to 180 degrees besides maintaining the required altitude, but theinstructions were completely ignored.
The report also included a written response from the air traffic controllerand approach tower controllers that were submitted to the investigationteam on May 26 during the probe of the crash.
The response mentioned that the approach tower controller had handled theflight on its way from Lahore to Karachi. The task to safely land theflight was given to the air traffic controller after 10 nautical miles.——————————
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In its response, ATC has revealed that when he took over, the plane was at3,000-foot altitude, whereas, it needed to maintain a 1,800-foot altitudebefore landing.
The pilot had informed the ATC that he will manage the landing at givenspeed and altitude, but he attempted the first landing without openinglanding gear, he said.
Both engines of the aircraft were badly damaged after hitting the ground asthe plane landed without opening landing gear. It seems that the captainforgot to open the landing gear while maintaining the speed and altitude ofthe aircraft, said the air traffic controller.
Later, the captain asked permission to land once again which was granted.He informed ATC that both engines were not working, and they were alertedfor an emergency.——————————
According to ATC, and approach tower controller, the captain had told themthat he was calm and will manage to land the aircraft.
However, the ill-fated aircraft just fell short of the destination by lessthan a mile and crashed in a residential area with more than 90 passengersand eight crew members on board. Only two passengers survived the deadlyaccident.
