KARACHI: PIA Chief Air Marshall Arshad Malik breaks silence over the illfated Aircraft technical aspect.
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane that crashed earlier todaywas “technically sound”, the national carrier’s chief executive said Fridayin a press conference here in the city.
PIA CEO Arshad Malik said the Aviation Ministry would oversee an inquiryinto the incident and that his team stood with the government of Pakistan,the armed forces, and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
“We will need 2-3 days to complete the operation,” Malik said. “Theairplane was technically sound.
“The aviation ministry will oversee an inquiry into the incident. We wantthe inquiry report to be completed as soon as possible but we cannot saywhen. We do not wish to interfere with the inquiry in any way.”
The PIA boss confirmed that 99 people, including passengers and air crew,were aboard the flight and that as of now, “we have reports of 19 dead inCivil Hospital and 22 in other hospitals”.
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He said the pilot established a final landing approach and the PakistanCivil Aviation Authority (PCAA) control room gave him a green signal to goahead.
“The pilot then did a go-around. He said he is preparing for a secondapproach.
“Now what was the reason for the go-around? Please do not have anysuspicions or doubts,” Malik said, adding that facts could be ascertainedthrough flight recorder and the black box. “Nothing can be said till theblack box is retrieved.”
The PIA top official added that after the go-around, the pilot gave a callstating he “will establish for second approach”.
