SHC grills PIA for not wrapping up 2016 crash investigation report

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday grilled the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for not submitting the inquiry report of the 2016 ATR plane crash at Hawalian, reported The News.

Forty-two passengers were killed when a PIA plane crashed at Hawalian in December 2016. Prominent singer Junaid Jamshed was also among those who were on the flight and passed away.

A hearing on a petition calling for the inquiry of the 2016 plane crash was held at the SHC. A division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar expressed concern that the final report still had not been presented after three years.

 The counsel of the Civil Aviation Authority submitted that ‘preliminary investigation reports’ of the PIA’s ATR crash in Hawalian on December 7, 2016 and A320 crash in Karachi on May 22, 2020 were submitted. The court wondered why the final report of the ATR plane crash incident had not been wrapped up by the Accident Investigation Board.

The high court directed the federal law officer to find out when the Accident Investigation Board would finalise the report on the crash.

The SHC directed submission of the report before the next date of hearing. It observed that if no proper response was submitted, the court would order personal appearance of the secretary aviation before the court and directed the law officer to comply with the direction by September 8.

The petitioner, Syed Iqbal Kazmi, told the court that the Civil Aviation Authority director-general had informed his seniors of serious defects in the functioning of ATR planes. He said that despite being informed of the potential dangers, no action was taken by the authorities to save precious lives.

Kazmi further said that as many as 20 incidents were on record in which PIA's engines had stopped during the flight. Besides, in 90 cases the engines of the ATR planes’ were removed owing to defects, he added.

The petitioner stated that after so many incidents, it was the duty of the cabinet division secretary, the DG CAA and the PIA chairman to not buy outdated planes which posed a risk to the lives of passengers and crew members. The petitioner claimed that the respondents had violated Article 9 of the Constitution and the civil aviation rules.

He pleaded for a judicial inquiry into the crash to hold those responsible and prosecute them. Kazmi also asked for compensation to the legal heirs of the victims.

The petitioner also pleaded the SHC to direct the respondents to ground all planes currently being used by the PIA and to order their inspection by the CAA or any other independent investigating agency or department.