JAKARTA - A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane carrying 99 people crashed in a densely populated area south of Karachi on May 22, 2020. The investigation follows the disaster, where one of the points referred to the crash as the fault of a pilot whose mind was disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three days after the crash, Sky News revealed the results of the earliest investigation by authorities, which revealed flight PIA 8393 had scratched the runway while attempting to land. Footage shows three burn marks extending across the runway, at a distance of 4,500 feet, 5,500 feet, and 7,000 feet.
The Airbus A320 eventually crashed in a densely populated area. Two people survived the incident. Other footage shows the plane descending at high speed before it explodes. Referring to the initial investigative report, the pilot briefly stated to the ATC that the landing gear was malfunctioning and the engine was down before it crashed.
Atc also allowed PIA 8303 to do "belly landing". Footage of the conversation shows how ATC officials gave a statement that the runway could be used. The pilot also touched the runway before the plane boarded again. This matches the description of one of the survivors, Mohamad Zubair.
Speaking to Pakistani television Geo News, Zubair claimed to have felt the plane briefly come down to the ground before returning to fly. The pilot, Zubair said, also announced that he would be conducting a re-landing attempt. But it's bad luck. The plane never landed safely.
"I could hear shouts from all over. All I saw was fire, I didn't see them," he said in an interview conducted at the hospital.
The report also highlighted pilots who did not report malfunctions during the first landing. The malfunction was only declared by the pilot on the second attempt. ""8303, you're at 1,800 feet and keep going down,"" an ATC officer told the pilot. The cockpit then responded by stating they were trying to defend it.
Then, in the last conversation, the pilots stated they lost two engines. "Confirm. Please do a belly landing. Runway 25 is free," the ATC confirmed the runway conditions.
Ten seconds from the ATC command, the pilot is heard saying, "Mayday, mayday, mayday Pakistan 8303." The signal was answered by the ATC with reconfirmation that they could land soon.
Pilot's mind disturbed by COVID-19 pandemicOne month after the incident, India Today reported Pakistani Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan's statement to the country's parliament. Ghulam, referring to the results of the investigation at the time said there was an element of human error in the accident. The pilots, he said, were not focused and thought about the coronavirus pandemic.
"Throughout (the flight), the discussion (between the pilots) was about corona," said Khan, who continued the families of the affected pilots.
Khan gave the example, at one point in flight, when the ATC warned the pilot that the plane was flying too high, one of the pilots replied that it would be arranged, before the two pilots returned to talk about the corona. Khan, on that occasion blamed the two pilots who he said did not follow the guidelines.
The distraction causes a series of procedure errors. First it's about a plane flying too high during the first landing attempt. Khan detailed that the investigation found the aircraft was flying at an altitude of more than 7,000 feet when the plane was less than 15 kilometers from the runway. With that position the altitude of the aircraft is ideally 2,500 feet.
Another mistake was how the pilot actually raised the landing gear which had been lowered about 10 kilometers from the runway. This error referred to Khan as "beyond comprehension." Khan also said during the first landing attempt, PIA 8303 swooped at a 60-degree angle, whereas the usual landing angle was 30 degrees.
After failed landing attempts, PIA 8303 decided to spin. However, the pilot's takeoff attempt failed. The plane did not make it to its supposed height until it crashed into a densely populated area of Karachi.
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