Maemuna Sadaf
PIA flight PK-661 crashed on 7th December 2016. Religious Scholar and most popular singer of the song “Dil Dil Pakistan” Junaid Jamshaid with his wife Neha Junaid, DC Chitral Usama Warraich along with his wife, 3 foreigners others including craft crew, 48 people died in ill-fated plane. Air plane was on 7500 feet height. Irrespective of who were in the craft, they all were human beings; the losses are unrecoverable for the families and country. Everyone is sad on this crash and loss of lives. Pakistan Army has helped in rescue operations in bringing out the dead bodies. Rescue operation continued till late night. Amongst deceased mostly bodies were not identifiable. The airplane has crashed due to shut down of one engine just after a few minutes of takeoff. Â Chairman PIA Azam Sehgal said “unfortunately none has survived”. Pilot Captain Saleh Janjua has 12,000 hours of flying experience, so he cannot be blamed for this crash. The history of this type of incidents goes back to 1970. The most recent incident before this one was Bhoja air 737 which crashed near Islamabad on 20th April 2012 and 130 people died in this crash. On 28th November 2010, Russian made IL 76 crashed near Karachi and 12 people died. On 5th November 2010, a private company was craft crashed during takeoff where 21 died. 152 people died when Airblue bus 321 crashed on Islamabad Margalla hills on 28th July 2010. On 10th July 2006, PIA Fokker27 crashed near Multan airport, 45 lives were lost. 8 died when private Sansa 402B crashed in Arabian Sea near Karachi on 24th Feb 2003. Air force Fokker aircraft crashed near Kohat on 19th Feb 2003. Air marshal Mushaf Ali Mir and his wife along with 17 others were died. 25th August 1989 PIA Fokker aircraft crashed just after a few minutes of takeoff, 54 died in this crash. An American Aviation Aircraft C-130 crashed near Bahawalpur on 17th August 1987. In this incident General Zia ul Haq who was president of Pakistan at that time has lost his life among 20 others. These incidents were investigated but responsible were not punished.The flight director’s post is empty since last 5 years. There is no surveillance. After these types of incidents, commissions are made, talk shows are held for a few days and statements are issued from higher officials to the media but no serious action is taken. This hype vanishes after a few days. In this case one engine for the said craft was not working still orders were made to pilot for flying. Question arises here why a craft with one damaged engine was ordered to fly in this weather? Why these ATR crafts are yet not grounded? Â Concluding more, Supreme Court of Pakistan should take so motto action on this incident and all responsible ones should be punished. A flight director, flight inspectors from air force will be appointed to check each and every flight either it is private or PIA. Political hiring must be stopped in organizations like railway and PIA because both of these organizations are national assets. Both of these assets are worth as both are responsible for long distanced travels. Every incident in case of railways or air plane crashes is responsible for a lot of deaths. Moreover, a strong action is needed against responsible authorities for this. If a strong action is not taken this time, this type of negligence will continue in future too.
