ISLAMABAD: Minister for Civil Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Wednesday said that an initial report of inquiry held into the recent Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash would be laid before the National Assembly (NA) on June 22.
Speaking in the National Assembly, he said the nation wanted to know the result of the investigation of the plane crash, which was being conducted by a team, comprising three senior officers of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and one from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The minister said in order to make the inquiry process further transparent and to address the concerns of pilots and heirs of victims, he had ordered that the International Association of Pilots (IAP) be asked to send a pilot and a technician for participating in the inquiry as well.
“The pilot would be a senior from Turkish airlines,” he said, adding that the inquiry would be made credible by including details of voice and data recorders which were decoded and received by the PIA.
Sarwar recalled that in the recent past, exact reports of inquiries conducted into the six airplane crashes, including that of Bhoja Airlines in Islamabad, Air Blue in Islamabad, PIA ATR in Havelian as well as a crash landing in Gilgit were not made public.
“However, now the inquiry reports of all these crashes would be put before the house,” he said, adding that it was high time that someone was held responsible for the frequent PIA plane crashes, an airline that had a fleet of 31 aircraft covering 56 destinations.
He recalled that 97 persons, including two members of the cockpit and six of cabin crew, died in the PIA aircraft crash on May 22, while two passengers luckily survived and were recovering fast.
Sarwar said that bodies of 95 crash victims were identified, despatched and buried after DNA testing and claimed that relatives were called and were given boarding and lodging facilities on government expense during the testing process.
He said although financial compensation was not a substitute for the loss of loved ones suffered by the families, the government compensated 82 victim families by giving each of them Rs1 million while 16 families either disputed the compensation or refused to take it as was done by the family of senior bureaucrat Khalid Sher Dil.
He said the airplane crashed over civilian population and destroyed 16 houses as well as many vehicles but thankfully most people remained safe except three girls who were not so lucky.
“Later, one of the girls died and her family was also compensated. The two injured girls were given complete medical assistance by the government and the PIA,” he said as he lauded locals in the area for bravely rescuing the injured from the fire, bringing them to hospitals and taking out dead bodies.
“Five families, which became homeless due to damage to their homes, have been lodged in the PIA’s hotel,” he added.
He assured the NA that the PIA, CAA and provincial government were conducting a survey to assess the damage to houses and vehicles to compensate the affectees.
The minister said the Turkish Airlines had a fleet of 300 aeroplanes and it covered 280 destinations and Emirates with a fleet of 280 planes covered 256 destinations but they were not prone to air crashes. So it was a matter of concern the way “our aeroplanes had crashed one after the other”, he added.
He welcomed the opposition’s move to seek details about checking of aeroplanes and screening of pilots.
He said in the past the PIA was politicised, and 846 pilots and technical staff of the airline got jobs on fake degrees and licences as was revealed after the checking ordered by the Supreme Court on a suo moto notice.
Sarwar said when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came, the PIA was in a shambles and its deficit had risen to Rs 482 billion. The government reduced the losses of PIA from Rs 4 billion per month to Rs 1 billion but due to difficult conditions after the coronavirus, the monthly loss again went up to Rs 6 billion.
“Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the airline industry in the world suffered the loss of $ 350 billion,” Sarwar said, adding the PIA also suffered losses but it did not lay off a single employee whereas the British Airways and other airlines laid off thousands of their workers.
The minister said that more than 90,000 Pakistanis, including 54,500 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 30,500 in Saudi Arabia, were stranded abroad whereas the government brought back 56,800 Pakistanis through 285 flights.
Sarwar said the government was planning to start international flights from June 15 to bring back Pakistanis stuck abroad.
He regretted that the Civil Aviation Division was suffering a loss of Rs 10 billion every month after the coronavirus attack and added that outsourcing of airports would be done in a transparent manner under his watch.
The minister said the segregation of commercial and regulatory functions of the Civil Aviation Division was at an initial stage and while doing it, jobs and service rules of employees would be protected.
