French team visits plane crash site, demands complete record of A320

KARACHI (Dunya News) – An 11 member French investigative team visited crash site of Pakistan International Airline’s PK-8303. The team also found one more part of plane’s blackbox.

According to details, French team arrived at the site with investigative team of PIA and checked plane’s engine, landing gear and wings. The team also assisted PIA team with their modern instruments.

However, the investigative team is still searching for cockpit voice record, which contains conversation of pilot and copilot of the plane.

On the other hand, the French team has demanded access to complete record of the A320 while getting briefed by PIA officials on the plane crash.

The French team asked some pertinent questions such as how many times was the A320 grounded in the previous one year? Which problems were fixed on the plane’s checklist? And how many cycles did the engine complete during flight in the last year?

Moreover, how many times was the plane put through checking process? How many times the landing gear was technically serviced? Which engineers worked on the main technical services of the aircraft? What resources and parts were used to fix technical problems? Did the alarm systems of the plane ever malfunction? And other important questions were asked.

The on-duty Air traffic controller and approach tower controller have also submitted their written statements.

According to sources, both the controllers were investigated by the Air Investigation Board. The written reply said that on May 22, PK 8303 was handled by the Approach Tower Controller from Lahore to Karachi. The task of landing the aircraft was then transferred to ATC, 10 nautical miles before landing.

The approach and the air traffic controller have provided all information about the incident to the inquiry board, claiming that the captain ignored instructions given 10 nautical miles before landing.

The approach controller said that before landing, when the plane is usually at an altitude of 1800 feet, the captain was flying at an altitude of 3000 feet and even after repeated instructions, the captain maintained that he would manage altitude and speed before landing.

The ATC further said that the captain landed the plane for the first time without opening the landing gear. On the first landing, both engines collided with the runway and rubbed against it three times and caused sparking before the captain pulled the plane back up asked for permission to land again.

According to sources, the investigation team questioned the ATC and the approach tower controllers whether the captain had signaled for an emergency landing, to which they replied that the captain did not declare to attempt an emergency landing and insisted that he would land normally.