PIA Chairman resignation

The reason for Azam Saigol's resignation was cited as ‘personal grounds’

All bucks stop somewhere, and in the case of the chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) it stopped on his desk, and Azam Saigol resigned on Monday 12^th December. He had been in post since May 2016. The reason for his resignation was cited as ‘personal grounds’ but coming soon after the crash of flight PK-661, and technical faults on another ATR aircraft on Sunday 11^th December which led to the aborting of a takeoff, it looks like Mr Saigol opted for an honourable exit.

All nine ATR aircraft are now grounded pending an investigation. It is also noted that a PIA flight from Manchester recently reported ‘technical’ problems and a flight from Lahore to Toronto had to land at Manchester because the passengers had managed to block the toilets. The latter case is clearly a self-inflicted wound and the passengers failed to obey instructions for toilet use, but other incidents have no such easy explanation.

Regarding the crash of the ATR aircraft and the subsequent grounding of the ATR fleet that at a stroke has negatively affected many PIA internal flights; it has to be said that whatever the cause the manufacturers have not called for a global grounding of all ATR fleets. A total of 432 ATR-42 aircraft have been delivered worldwide up until December 2014 and the type is still in production. Were the manufacturers to suspect an endemic fault then the type would be grounded everywhere. It is not, and ATR-42s are not falling from the skies the world over in a spate of incidents.

Perhaps prematurely Mr Saigol had cited engine failure as the cause of the crash, saying that he did not think there was any technical or human error. Both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder have been recovered and will tell us what happened. It was at the very least unwise of Mr Saigol to pre-empt the formal investigation, and his resignation under the circumstances entirely appropriate — though unusual in the prevailing climate of corporate denial.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2016.

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