Ban the Circle-to-Land Procedure

CHANTILLY, VA, US: In light of the recent air accident, the CAA should immediately ban the right-hand circle-to-land on Runway 12 at Islamabad. Many countries either prohibit it or prohibit their pilots from executing it. I appreciate the fact that the procedure has been in place all these years and there have been no accidents. The stricture that you can do it if you stay visual at all times is there but as this accident shows it was not followed because the pilot would not have knowingly hit a hill in front of him if he had visual contact. So just ban it for safety reasons.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2010.