Muslim morons - "At that stage, instead of allowing the plane to slide to a halt, the pilot powered up the engines and took off again." I never met a Muslim who wasn't a fucking retard.

Wall Street Journal

WORLD

ASIA

Pilots in Pakistan Crash Were Chatting About Coronavirus, Says Aviation Minister

Minister said a separate investigation found that nearly one-third of active Pakistani civilian pilots have fraudulently-obtained flying licenses.

By Saeed Shah

June 24, 2020

ISLAMABAD—The pilots of a Pakistan International Airlines plane that crashed in Karachi last month were chatting about coronavirus and not paying attention to the landing, the country’s aviation minister said Wednesday.

During the same speech in parliament, the minister said that a separate investigation had revealed that hundreds of Pakistani pilots, working for domestic airlines as well as some airlines overseas, obtained their pilot licenses by cheating and were fraudulently credentialed.

The Pakistan International Airlines flight that crashed came down in a residential area on the edge of the airport, killing 97 of the 99 passengers and crew. One of the residents injured on the ground later died.

Ghulam Sarwar Khan, the aviation minister, announcing the findings of a preliminary report into the May 22 accident, said that the pilot tried to land without the plane’s wheels extended, scraping the engines along the runway. The plane then took off again to try for another landing, but the damaged engines failed.

No technical problem with the Airbus A320 was found, Mr. Khan said. The plane was powered by engines manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric Co. and Safran SA of France.

The minister also announced the results of an unrelated investigation which found that nearly one-third of active Pakistani civilian pilots have fraudulently-obtained flying licenses. He said many had others sit for their pilot exams, among other qualification abuses. He said that the 262 pilots with fraudulent licenses worked for PIA and private domestic carriers, while some were also employed by foreign airlines.

He said that pilots without valid licenses have been identified and won’t be allowed to fly in Pakistan, while foreign authorities where they are working will be alerted.

“This is shameful,” Mr. Khan told parliament, vowing to restructure PIA. “We have to fix things, we have to fix this country.”

A spokesman for PIA, Abdullah Khan, said that 150 of its pilots were identified in the inquiry as having dubious credentials—more than a third of its pilots—and they would all now be grounded. He said the airline was only just told the names of pilots alleged to have fraudulent licenses.

PIA is running flights to repatriate Pakistanis stranded due to coronavirus and its operations will now be severely affected by the loss of these pilots, he said.

The aviation minister also released the official reports of four other crashes dating back to 2010, involving PIA and domestic private carriers, and said that pilot error was to blame for all but one. Up to now, crash reports had largely been kept secret in Pakistan.

The May 22 flight from the eastern city of Lahore to the southern port of Karachi, a journey of around an hour and a half, was carrying many people going to see loved ones for the Muslim festival of Eid.

The aviation minister said that the plane’s descent to land was too steep and fast, and the pilots ignored repeated warnings from air-traffic control to circle around for another approach.

The captain and co-pilot were “overconfident, and not focused,” said Mr. Khan. “They were talking about coronavirus throughout.”

The “black box” flight data and voice recorders were found and decoded. Officials from Airbus, the engine maker, as well as French aviation officials and one American air accident investigation official, helped with the investigation, Mr. Khan said.

Ten miles from Karachi’s Jinnah International airport, the landing gear was extended, but then, for reasons “beyond understanding,” the wheels were pulled up when it was 5 miles out, he said.

At that 10-mile point, the plane was at 7220 feet, almost three times the height it should have been, Mr. Khan said. That meant the plane “dived” to the runway at an angle of 60 degrees, instead of the 30 degree approach recommended, he said.

The A320 is one of the most popular commercial jets in the world and is fitted with multiple warning systems, which did activate. “Several warnings and alerts such as over-speed, landing gear not down and ground proximity alerts were disregarded” by the pilots, the report said.

The plane came down without the landing wheels deployed, so the plane’s engines bumped along the runway for 3,000 to 4,000 feet, with the friction causing sparks and flames, the aviation minister said.

At that stage, instead of allowing the plane to slide to a halt, the pilot powered up the engines and took off again. He tried to circle back for another landing but the damaged engines stopped and the plane crashed into homes less than a mile short of the runway, the report said.

The aviation minister said that air-traffic control was also at fault for not immediately reporting the damage to the engines in the aborted landing to the pilots, which it had seen. The control tower had also never spotted that the plane’s landing gear wasn’t extended, the report said.

Experts said that the reason behind apparent elementary mistakes by the pilot—especially not extending the landing gear and trying to take off again after scraping the engines—were still not clear.

Aviation officials called Wednesday’s announcement a fact-finding interim report and said the full investigation aimed to answer remaining questions and address the wider implications of the crash for Pakistan’s aviation system.

—Waqar Gillani in Islamabad contributed to this article.