This has been a bad year for civil aviation in Pakistan. In less than six months there have been three crashes that have collectively killed 184 people. The aircraft types that have crashed have all been very different, from a large cargo plane to a medium-sized executive transport. Two have occurred within a month alone, both in Karachi. The most recent crash early on Saturday night involved a four-engine cargo carrier that was bound for Sudan. There are reports, one of them from the control tower at Jinnah International Airport, that the aircraft was on fire before it hit the ground. Mobile-phone footage appears to confirm this. Late on Sunday afternoon the death toll was reported to have risen to eleven, eight aboard the aircraft and three on the ground with about ten injured. That there were not more casualties is little short of miraculous, as daylight revealed just how close to densely packed residential buildings it happened. Among many other questions, it must be asked if housing schemes under busy flightpaths and so close to runways should be allowed.
Now on to other issues and questions. The Airblue crash in the Margalla Hills happened on July 28 this year. The flight data recorder was recovered and sent to France for decoding – followed by complete silence. It is reasonable to expect something to have been recovered from the data-recorder by now. I believe definitive statement as to the cause would also ease the plight of the many relatives of the victims who are still unable in some cases still to register the deaths of their loved ones.
This is indeed tragic that media had been creating a hype just for some days after the crash and now there seems to be no follow up!
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