A decade since

July 28 marks 10 years since Airblue flight 202 crashed in the Margalla Hills in Islamabad, killing all 152 passengers aboard. Since then, what has Pakistan done to ensure such a tragedy never happens again? The answer, in short: not much.

A lot can happen in 10 years. Ideally any industry or country will only improve. The contrary is also very well possible: we can regress at the things we once mastered.

For Pakistan and flight safety, it’s fair to say that things have worsened. We started with the 2010 Airblue crash, followed by the 2012 Bhoja and 2016 PIA crash in Havelian, where we lost Junaid Jamshed, and one more just a few months back. What will we say 10 years from now, when we look back on 2020? The answer is up to us and how much we hold the airline industry and government leadership to a better standard.

The government did pass the Carriage by Air Act in 2012, but the results indicate it hasn’t accomplished much. Further draft legislation has been sitting on the website of the Civil Aviation Authority for years now (the same draft since 2017). This legislation does close to nothing to mandate improvements in flight safety, quality control systems for airlines or any other number of simple measures that could make a big difference.

What do we say to those who just lost loved ones on PIA flight 8803, which crashed right outside the Karachi airport? This incident has prompted significant interest and outcries from the public. But have we already moved on?

Islam teaches that a deceased person should be buried as quickly as possible with mourning limited to a certain number of days. Like much of Islam, this is done in the spirit of moving forward with our lives, finding a new normal while mourning those no longer with us. The families of the deceased in PIA flight 8803 have not been able to move on. Most likely didn’t get to properly bury their loved ones, have not been compensated, and are still awaiting death certificates and struggling to get basic answers from PIA and the government, let alone trying to move forward with their lives. Where will these families be 10 years from now?

But how much is enough before we are willing to take substantive action? Plane crashes aren’t killing as many people every year as are broader societal issues such as health inequities, poverty or crime. But these are chronic issues that have plagued every country and are significantly more difficult to eradicate, if at all. Deaths from plane crashes are completely avoidable however, and Pakistan, with over 465 dead in the last decade, has one of the worst aviation records in the world.

We recently learned that nearly one third of pilots in Pakistan have fraudulent licenses. How would we feel if the same was for our doctors or other licensed professionals? The government was brave to release this information, all while understanding the uproar it might invite. Pakistan’s aviation sector, and its pilots in particular, have become a global joke. Those who have lost loved ones are not laughing.

I don’t want to write articles like this anymore. I want to write an article where I can be proud that Pakistan had zero plane crashes and passenger deaths.

Even though the decade has gotten off to a pretty terrible start, we don’t have to let the entire decade be this way. Pakistan has fought through wars, terrorism crises, and is currently battling a pandemic. Planes will start flying again regularly, and when they do, inshallah they’ll come back down the way they’re supposed to: without incident.