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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Airline disasters in Pakistan's history


On August 1, 1957, 24 people were killed when a Pakistan International Airlines flight crashed in the Bay of Bengal. The next year, over 20 people died when a PIA flight crashed in New Delhi. 1965 was one of the deadliest years for Pakistan International Airlines. Two flights crashed, one in the Lowery Pass, which killed 22 people. The other, was an inaugural flight that was headed to London, and crashed 12 miles away from the Cairo airport. According to a report in the Evening Independent newspaper, the Karachi-London flight was scheduled to pick up 52 passengers from Cairo. Of the 126 people on board, only six survived. Among the dead were 93 Pakistanis, while the six survivors were also Pakistani. The report stated, “Captain Akbar Aly Khan, pilot of the four engine jet, reported engine trouble and a fire in the landing gear minutes before the crash.” In 1970, a Fokker plane crashed soon after take-off in Islamabad, killing 30 passengers. In 1972, another Fokker plane crashed in Rawalpindi, and all 26 on board died. On November 26, 1979, one of the worst aviation disasters in the country’s history occurred. A PIA flight crashed on take-off in Taif in Saudi Arabia, killing 156 people. The passengers included 110 pilgrims returning from Mecca.Sarasota Journal quoted a Radio Pakistan report that said that the “first indication of an emergency came when the plane’s pilot radioed ‘there was smoke in the cabin and cockpit’ and shortly after the captain called out ‘Mayday’.” Two more Fokker crashes occurred in the 1980s. One crash, that took place in Peshawar on October 13, 1986, killed 13, while the other, on August 25, 1989, killed 54. The latter crashed in Gilgit and hikers reported seeing a low-flying plane in the area. The October 13 crash was reportedly caused by wedding celebrations in Peshawar, according to the New York Times. The NYT quoted Dawn as saying that the crash “may have been the result of gunfire that hit the aircraft or distracted the pilot” and that “seven bridegrooms who were celebrating their marriages that night were arrested in Peshawar.” The biggest aviation disaster to date was the PIA flight that crashed in the Nepal capital of Kathmandu in September 1992 and killed all 167 people on board. The plane burst into flames as it was about to land at the Kathmandu airport. The dead included 37 Britons and 3 Americans. A report in the Herald Scotland at the time said, “Flight PX268, en route to the Nepalese capital from Karachi, was carrying scores of European holidaymakers, many of them backpackers and members of climbing teams.” The last major airline disaster was in 2006, when a 27-year-old Fokker plane crashed into a wheat field in Multan two minutes after taking off. The same year, Pakistan International Airlines discontinued use of Fokker planes. The Associated Press quoted a government official saying that “the planes were still airworthy and the decision to stop using them for passenger flights was made to allay people’s safety fears.” Other airlines have also seen plane crashes within Pakistani territory, including a Soviet (now Russian) Aeroflot cargo plane that crashed in Karachi, killing 9 people.

US concerned over ISI's links with Lashkar, Haqqani network

The US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said that Washington remained concerned over Pakistani intelligence agency ISI's alleged links with Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and the Haqqani network. Mullen said: "Any links which exist with terrorist organisations, whether it's Haqqani or LeT, are completely unacceptable. I am appalled at the release. I feel very strongly that we need to make sure to do all we can that leaks like this don't occur." The 92,000 documents released by WikiLeaks on Sunday, dating from 2004 to 2009, alleges Pakistan for allowing its spies to meet directly with the Taliban and even plot to assassinate Afghan leaders and US soldiers. Admiral Mullen said he was "appalled" at the leak of 92,000 secret military files on the Afghan mission, but that the information about Pakistan's activities and other details were taken into account during a major strategy review on the war last year. "Certainly the information that I've seen so far in the documents, there's nothing in there that wasn't reviewed or considered in the strategic review on the war last year," Mullen told reporters on his plane before landing in Iraq. The Daily Times quoted him as saying that the Obama administration was still "working through" all the documents, adding that most of the files appeared to be "field level information, raw intelligence". Asked if the files show Pakistan has duped Washington, Admiral Mullen said that was not the case and that the US had made clear to Islamabad its concerns about possible links to militant groups.

Pakistan jet with 152 on board crashes

A Pakistani passenger plane crashed in heavy rain near Islamabad on Wednesday, killing at least 90 people and officials said it was unlikely that there would be any survivors among the 152 people on board. The Airbus 321, belonging to private airline Airblue, crashed into a heavily wooded and hard-to-access hillside while flying from the southern port city of Karachi. Rescue workers were scouring the site for bodies, officials said. "Most of the bodies are charred. We're sending body-bags via helicopters. It's a very difficult operation because of the rain," said Aamir Ali Ahmed, a senior city government official. "We can pray and hope but what experts are saying is that there's no chance of any survivors," he added. Earlier reports that five survivors had been pulled from the wreckage were wrong, said Imtiaz Elahi, chairman of the state-run Capital Development Authority, a city municipal body. "It would be a miracle but we're not expecting any survivors," said another official, who declined to be named. Rescuers said they had to dig through the rubble with their bare hands, with fire and thick smoke hampering their work. The fire has since been extinguished, but access to the hillside remained limited to pedestrians and helicopters. "You find very few intact bodies. Basically, we are collecting bodies parts and putting them in bags," Bin Yameen, senior officer in the Islamabad police, told Reuters from the scene of the crash. "I don't know the exact death toll but one can imagine not many could survive in such a bad situation. The plane lost contact with the control room of the Islamabad International Airport at 0443 GMT. It was carrying 146 passengers and six crew members. The crash site is on the Margalla Hills facing Islamabad, about 300 meters (yards) up the side of the hills. Smoke could be seen from some districts of the city after the crash. "It was raining. I saw the plane flying very low from the window of my office," witness Khadim Hussain said. Heavy monsoon rains have lashed the area for the past few days.