It is unprecedented for an interim report to be prepared without coming out with a probable cause of the accident.
CHANTILLY, VA, US: This is with reference to your editorial of July 30 titled “An air crash and its aftermath” which makes for a very balanced comment on this issue. It is unprecedented for an interim report to be prepared without coming out with a probable cause of the accident. If that is the case, the CAA has blazed a new path in accident investigation! They should either be given an award for their originality or fired en masse. I suggest the latter.
The only consolation in this sordid and callous drama is that it should put paid to all the conspiracy theories — missiles, highjack, suicide, unidentified voices in the cockpit, and so on. Even in your newspaper’s website, I saw a person suggesting that it was a missile strike. What is wrong with us?
This asking for comments from the aircraft and engine manufacturer is a fig leaf. They are accredited representatives to the investigation and could not have taken a full year to give their comments, which still seem to be pending.
This is, tragically, a case of human error. Of course, as always, there were many contributory factors that caused it: Fatigue, weather, inappropriate crew-pairing, a loss of situational awareness, spatial disorientation, over-confidence and complacency, poor coordination between radar and the airport flight control tower, disregard of computer-generated audible warnings of proximity to terrain/high ground and disregard of standard operating procedures which dictate that pilots must be visual at all times when circling to land on runway 12 at Islamabad airport.
Meekal Ahmed
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2011.
