Pakistan achieves 75% aviation safety score

Pakistan has made it to the list of countries achieving the aviation safety targets with a 75% score, according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) report for the year 2020.

According to the report, 46 countries, including Pakistan, have succeeded in implementing more than 75% of safety standards.

The report further disclosed that the aviation accidents rose by 16% in the year 2019 in comparison with the previous year.

The proportion of accidents was 2.9% in one million flights, it added.

The report assesses the safety standards based on aviation rules, staff training, licensing aircraft operations, probing the accidents and navigation services.

In July this year, the PIA passed the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) for the resumption of flights to the European Union, the UK and the US.

However, the national flag carrier is waiting for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to get its audit done by the ICAO.

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In late June 2020, PIA came under pressure when Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan declared during a session of parliament that 30% of pilots were working on fake licences out of 860 active pilots in the country.

The minister unveiled a report in this regard one month after a plane crash on May 22 in Karachi, which claimed lives of 98 people.

After a series of incidents, Pakistani airlines, especially PIA, came under scrutiny of international organisations, which demanded safety audits. Until then, PIA flights were banned to the European Union and the UK while the US slashed its category.

Earlier, PIA was struggling to start direct flights to the US, but Transport Safety Administration officials visited the Islamabad airport several times and were willing to allow PIA to fly directly to the US, PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan told The Express Tribune.

However, after those incidents, the US also banned flights coming through third country, mostly the UK.

The UK was authorised to check all safety standards before the aircraft left for the US.

Also In July, the aviation minister said the visit by a team of the ICAO to Pakistan had been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Talking to the media, the minister said the ICAO team was to visit Pakistan from July 5 to 15, but it was expected to come in September or October.