PIA plane crash: Two years on, agony of victims’ heirs continues

Two years have passed since the national air carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had its worst plane crash in history in which 97 people including eight crew members lost their lives while two passengers were lucky to survive.

On the second anniversary of the tragedy, Minister for Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique extended deep condolences and sympathies to the grieved families and friends of victims of the ill-fated air crash, assuring that the final report would be compiled and made public at the earliest.

However, the agony of the heirs of passengers who went to their 'final destination' on board PIA flight PK8303 continues as they face legal hurdles in acquiring the due compensation.

The PIA flight had left on Jumatul Wida, the last Friday of Ramazan, from Lahore for Karachi and crashed in Model Colony close to the landing near Karachi Airport Quaid-e-Azam International Terminal.

About a month after the accident, on June 24, 2020, the then Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan presented an interim report in the National Assembly in which he said that the pilot had ignored the instructions of air traffic controllers.

He further said that the rules and equipment warning system were ignored by the cockpit crew. According to the report, plane's landing gear developed a fault, which prompted the pilots to opt for emergency (belly) landing.

The plane's captain, Sajjad Gul took off the plane again for a round before malking another attempt to land, but the 11-year-old aircraft crashed just a kilometer away from the runway. According to Dr Mohammad Mohsin, son of one of the victims of the plane crash, the day of the incident continues to cause painful jolts in his mind. He was in the lounge of Karachi airport with his brother Atif to receive his mother, who was on board the plane when received reports of a plane crash.

They left the airport and then chased the smoke and reached the crash site near Model Colony. According to Mohsin, an Emergency Response Center should be set up which would be accessible to every citizen so that in case of any traumatic incident, immediate action could be taken.

Zarqa Chaudhry, who lost her father in a PIA plane, told The Express Tribune that her son had reached Karachi airport to pick up her father. At that time, she and her family was preparing for the reception when she received a call from her sister in Lahore that a plane had crashed in Karachi.

According to Zarqa Chaudhry, she did not have the faintest clue that it was the same flight in which her father was aboard. When she heard the news, she thought that her father's flight may have been delayed. Later when the plane was identified, she hoped that her father may have been among a few of the survivors. However, when the survivors were identified, she became convinced that her father had passed away. Zarqa said that there were sights of chaos at the scene of the incident and she felt that there was a great lack of professionalism by concerned authorities.

With this mismanagement, it seemed as if these conditions were completely new to PIA and civil aviation, she said, adding she had identified his father's body at Jinnah Hospital three days later, but was told there that the dead body could not be handed over to the heirs until scientific evidence was found. Even after seven days, his DNA report was not prepared while she continued to visit the lab at Karachi University every day.

Eventually, one of his sisters, based in Lahore, took the DNA test there. Zarqa revealed that about 52 members of the airline had already given their samples at a private lab in Lahore.

She alleged that many dead bodies were changed during the lapse because the dead body given to her family was not the one identified in the hospital. She, however, accepted the remains seeing her mother's deteriorating condition.

Sources informed The Express Tribune that it may still take two to three years for the full report of the plane crash to come to light. According to a PIA spokesperson, the families of the 71 passengers killed in the plane crash received Rs10 million in compensation each while also given Rs0.5 million for burial and Rs100,000 for lost luggage and valuables. The rest of the families have some legal hurdles in the way of payments, including inheritance certificates.

Official report soon

A spokesperson for the Aviation Division on Sunday said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) team was in process of preparing the draft of a final report on the PIA plane crash that occurred two years ago near Jinnah International Airport, claiming 98 precious lives.

"Despite restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related challenges, by now the team has collected all required evidence and is presently working on the draft of a final report," the spokesperson said in a news release here.

In accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements, the second interim statement had been issued by AAIB Pakistan, which is available on Aviation Division's website.