Two Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) twin-turboprop aeroplanes met with engine failures on Saturday, but their passengers remained unscathed due to safe emergency landings. The airline’s official spokesperson termed these landings as ‘technical landings’.
Half an hour after takeoff from Jinnah International Airport, the engine of PIA’s ATR plane failed. Flight number PK-501 was headed to Turbat and it flew on schedule at 8:30 am with 21 passengers and four crew members. After a while, the pilot felt there was a problem in the plane’s left engine and he passed this information on to relevant officers, PIA’s official spokesperson, Mashood Tajwar said. The control tower at Jinnah International Airport directed the pilot to make an emergency landing at the Karachi airport because Turbat airport did not have engineering facilities to fix the airplane. The pilot landed the plane safely even with a short time limit, said the spokesperson. He added that the twin-turboprop planes can land easily with one of its engines off, even on small runways. These planes were made part of PIA’s fleet when the infamous Fokkers were removed after the Multan incident. “In the event of an engine failure the risk factor is relatively low because these aeroplanes fly at a slower speed as compared to jets,” said Tajwar.
The small 48-seater plane, model number ATR 42-500, takes an hour and twenty minutes to cover the 431 kilometres distance from Karachi to Turbat. Once the plane arrives in Turbat it has to leave for Muscat, the capital of Oman, and then return back to Karachi with another stopover at Turbat. All these flights were called off by the PIA administration.
The second incident of engine failure occurred with Flight PK-508 which was flying from Panjgur to Karachi. The incident occurred after the airplane had to cover about 40 more minutes of the 75-minute flight.
The plane took off from Panjgur at 3:15pm with 32 people on board, including crew members. The pilot advanced towards the Karachi airport with only one engine turned on and landed safely.
PIA’s spokesperson termed both accidents as ‘happenstances’. However an official from the engineering department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the department requires immediate attention to counter incidents like these, which involve faulty parts and equipment.
Both planes are from the same family of twin-turboprop passenger aircraft and were developed and manufactured by Avions de Transport Regional, which is an Italian-French aircraft manufacturer and is headquartered in France.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 4th, 2011.
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A Challenging Flight is travel to Bhit gas field air strip is safe? The air strip located in low area in between hills (like: Valley). As I traveled fortnightly from Karachi to Bhit Gas field thru charter flight ATR42-500 aircraft .As to turn the ATR around in the valley, it is a challenging landing! No doubt the PIA crew is fully aware and they follow all Safety Procedures like all safety announcements and instructions given out by Cabin Crew. The issues we face at Bhit air strip landing: More turbulence from routine & Jerky landing.
The The Karachi to Turat Sectors bound flight Pk501 on Saturday Diverted back to base Karachi due single engine problem but some time pilot shut down the engine due to effected an others part inside in the engine for safety purpose. the pilot was fully experienced who already fly Airbus 300/310 and have a lot of hours the the ATR42-500 aircraft twins engines purchased from France but it engine made by Canada wings by Brazil and body by France it new technological air craft but some time due engineering problem it happened otherwise aircraft life and being a lot of experience pilots it could cover ... Jalil_Baloch PIA Gwadar
@kaiser. Please see Meekal Ahmad's comments regarding the authority and responsibility of pilots. Yes, pockets and turbulence do happen and PIA's passengers are notorious for not using seatbelts even when repeatedly asked, but there is also another big issue. Given Pakistan's geogrpahy, route changes generally bring commercial aircraft near one of the many airforce bases scattered around the country and route change clearances have to be permitted by the PAF control at Chaklala. This often takes so much time that PIA pilots choose to fly through 'rough' weather where they are reasonably sure that the worse will be a few bad bumps. Of course, there is the rare cowboy like one 'SardarJee' (now retired) who switches the radar off and guns through storms!
On 28 Aug 2011, I was travelling from Sukkur to Islamabad. the Plane arrived at Sukkur after a dealy of about one hour. After we boarded the Plane we kept on sitting for more than one and a half hour in the plane.We were told that the plane had developed a technical problem and we would leave after the problem is rectified. I later learnt from One of the crew that this plane had developed aanother problem at islamabad before departing for Hyderabad the same day. I understand Planes have multiple systems and problems do occur, but two problems in a single day resulting in delays cre worth taking note of. At least warrant an entry. ATR planes are relatively new however the standard of Maintenance is not new and can certainly result into complacency and a major disaster similar to the Multan crash. Loosing one engine and feathering the other resulted in the Multan crash. Just two days back a Jumbo flew through a Cb Cell shortly before landing at Lahore,resulting in severe turbulence and sudden loss of Altitude, causing injuries to a number of passengrs.Weather Radars do warn of Cb Cells but Pilots disregarded radar warnings,which could have led to breakup of the plane in mid air due to severe turbulence. What was more painful was the attitude of the spokesman of PIA who attributed this to the fault of passengers and an AIR POCKET. As if there was a pocket of space in the atmosphere! PIA had better take a serious note of hte complacent attitude at all levels by its employees.
These emergency landings have become a routine. All planes should be grounded and checked thoroughly before its too late. Don't worry about the passengeres stranded at airports. They can wait few days, as they are used to it now. Also credentials, physical & mental states of pilots and engineers should be examined. These days a famous doctor in Karachi has become crazy, therefore we should keep our eyes on other professions too, otherwise next time emergency landing won't be in one piece.
Since it was an ATR, why are you showing a picture of the Boeing 777?
The pilot cannot be "instructed" by anyone. He must have told ATC he was turning back. It is his decision and since this appears to have happened early in the flight and Karachi is the main engineering base, it was the right decision.
A one-engine-out is not an "emergency" unless the pilot declared it as one.
The aircraft that made the emergency landing was a twin prop ATR whereas the accompanying picture is of a Boeing 777 jet. If you look around you can easily find copyright free pictures of ATRs online. But that's asking too much I guess.