Tragedy in the Margallas (IV)

KARACHI: This is with reference to your report ‘A321 crash points to bigger problems’. It was a detailed story and well-written. Under such circumstances, it is usually the air traffic controller whose job it is to keep track of a situation when a landing has been aborted and a plane is flying close to mountainous terrain.

We may never know the exact story, but the real question remains that why was the plane flying so low and why had it veered so far from its ascribed path. Also, what was air traffic control in Islamabad doing about this?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2010.