Plane crash: FIA takes Farooq Bhoja into custody
FIA Sindh Director Muazzam Jah Ansari said that Bhoja has not been arrested but is being kept in custody for interrogations. He was taken into custody from his house in the Burns Road area of Karachi.
The FIA also raided his office in the Nursery area and seized official documents for inquiry.
Earlier, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Bhoja's name has been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL).
Malik, who was speaking to the media at PIMS hospital, said that a probe committee has been formed to investigate the cause of the crash.
"The causes will be investigated, whether it was any fault in the aircraft, bad weather, lightning or any other factor that caused loss of precious lives," he added.
The interior minister said that till a thorough investigation is carried out, it would be premature to state anything.
The passenger flight travelling from Karachi to Islamabad carrying 121 passengers and six crew members came hurtling down towards the outskirts of Rawalpindi at 6:46pm on Friday evening.
Among the passengers were five infants and six children. There were no survivors.
Bhoja Air’s aged B737-200 took off from Karachi airport at 5:05pm and crashed five nautical miles from Islamabad airport on the village of Hussainabad. However, rescuers said people on the ground remained largely safe as the bulk of the wreckage fell in an open area.
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COMMENTS (62)
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Moral of the story so far - Pakistan needs an honest government.
First change the name of airport back to Islamabad International Airport and start with that to get rod of bhutto ki baqiyaat. Only then the country will come out of crisis.
... the Bhoja Air B4 213 crash may, hopefully alert the Pakistanis about another scandalous plan to put airline owned by PPP big wigs in the skies to fool, fleece the people country from suffering a, loot the country. Now, that game plan may become more difficult ...
Be sure ... DG CAA will not resign because he and the CFO has been put their, bypassing all the rules and norms to make money from a well run, professional outfit that is highly cash rich ... and also to pave way for Indus Airways (Zardarji own airline) ...
... like in everything else ... an open, transparent investigation may lead either to the Crime Minister or to the Corruptesident and their cronies ... the DG CAA should resign and allow an open investigation ......
Mr. Ali Tanoli, First of all, get your figures straight. Its 127. Secondly, whatever youre claiming is so baseless. A machines failure is never to be blamed on someone who wasnt even there. I dont even see how he is responsible. The only thing was he was the owner.
Go and drink 7up. Lol. Dimaag ki batti jalao. :P
I guess airline should be blamed on it. They used 30 years old plane, God knows if it was even able to fly properly or not. CAA must be involved in getting that air craft allowed to fly. Corrupt officers play with people's valuable lives. I wish their families were boarded on the same plane so they could understand. Though putting the name Bhoja on ECL doesn't make sense at all. Their whole family can face problems traveling abroad.
What does that achieve? Are we saying anyone can just certify the airline? I will be shocked if an airline owner has the authority to say that flight is good for travel, how about CAA, International standards etc.? This is a airline not a freakin Suzuki car! Investigation is definitely needed, but not sure owner will be the only culprity!
The abuse of ECL has serious implications. If you treat the country as a prison, the citizens will behave like inmates.
@Lala Gee: Ignore him. He is just seeking attention.
Nonsense, how can the government take Mr Farooq Bhoja into custody although their own DG Civil Aviation Authority said the airplane was fit to fly and was checked by CAA at Karachi Airport? . 'Hawai fire' justice does not help the family affected by the tragic incident.
@zalim singh: Come out of this thing atleast at this time ...... In punjabi there's a saying
Dushman maray khshi na karyee Sajna wi tur jan ik din
No hard feelings bro...... Cheers
I need to comment on two aspects of media coverage of this tragedy.
1) Why are tv reporters thrusting microphones in the faces of relatives of victims and asking them things like, "how do you feel now?". How very, very insensitive is that. You lose a loved one and your life is turned upside down. The last thing you want is people trespassing and exploiting your private grief. Is there no respect for privacy of grieving families in this country of mourners? Human life has lost its value to our collective conscience by this irresponsible and insensitive reporting.
2) Why don't TV channels stop beaming scenes of distraught families and focus on why this incident happened and if it could have been avoided? Come on, we all know precious lives have been lost but now move on and fix the responsibility so that it doesn't happen again. I agree accidents happen in developed countries too but authorities their don't look to protect those responsible. Why have the names of politically appointed management of Civil Aviation Authority not cropped up in media chatter so far? I mean CAA are ultimately responsible for licensing and authorizing airlines and their aircraft. I seriously hope media show some responsibiliy and focus on the right sides of this tragedy.
As usual all the big fishes involved in Air Blue accident are still roaming around i the country.....and..... who got caught Mr. Bhoja??? how low can this government go. OMG!!!!
@Mo Sheikh: appreciate some action atleast
in any case bhuja is not responsible. cause 1st thing is, Fault lies with civil Aviation authority. they are the ones who cleared the air craft for approach on that fatefull day. and they issued the license to him and they check all the warrantys no 2 wat was his role????? even if he bought a sub standard aircraft wat was th government authority CAA doing???? they cleared the aircraft to fly at the first place. if i make a product and get clearence to sell it from govt authorities why will i be blamed? because the authorities cleared that this product is not harm full (counter signed). he did not make the aircraft its all a drama by the GOVERNMENT
If the owner is to be held responsible before an inquiry is held, then by the same rule the honerable minister Rehman Malik should be held responsible for ALL the killings in Karachi.
@Meekal Ahmed sahab, yes i agreed and u know belong to Army is like israel is for america......
Perhaps if you conducted honest, quick, and accurate reports of the causes of airline disasters you wouldn't have to detain people without so much as an investigation - and you might actually reduce this kind of disaster in the future. This appears to be a publicity stunt by an inept administration to create the image that they really care.
@Ali Tanoli:
The issue of compensation is not even being discussed here. Of course the families should be compensated once they produce the required documentation. You cannot waive that requirement because then you and I can claim we are family and pocket the money.
Air Blue has still to compensate all the families but they have a sound reason: they want to see the sucession certificates! That is NOT an unreasonable requirement.
One final point: Bhoja Air was allowed to bring in a 30 year old plane because Shaheen Air which belongs to the army was already flying exactly the same model. How can you say yes to Shaheen and no to Bhoja or anyone else?
There should be a rule that henceforth no private carrier will be allowed to operate an aircraft that is more than, say, 10 years old and all such aircraft shall be equipped with the latest equipment -- and you could specify the equipment they MUST have, for safety reasons.
PIA, being the national airline could be grand-fathered from this clause. But PIA also needs to move its back-side and replace their ageing A301's and Boeing 737-300's. Once they do that and the Jumbo's are retired, there will be a dramatic drop in the average age of their fleet.
@zalim singh:
"dear sirs, our anguish is also equally painful when hindu women are kidnapped and converted."
And it becomes even more painful when they admit in Supreme Court that they were neither kidnapped nor forcibly converted. As I said in one of my comments in another article that Indians are completely brain-washed since childhood and find it very difficult to accept the reality later on.
Now this is getting a bit rediculous! And stupid! This gentleman is not the pilot. He is the owner.
If they want to take action seize the files in the CAA pertaining to the operating license. Was everything done in a transparent manner?By the book? Who took the decision at the CAA and then the Ministry of Defense and on the basis of what criteria?
Seize also the pilot and maintenance records/logs. Were the pilots well-trained and where? How much experience did they have on the 737-200?
Were they specifically trained on "wind-shear" encounters and how to get out of it? Where were they trained and on what kind of simulator?
How were they rated by their peers during conversion training? Were they competent flyers or did they have to take the exam several times?
Was the plane well-maintained or did it have a long list of snags that were being carried/deferred?
Obviously these will be taken up by the investigating team in which I have NO faith. Even the AB accident report did not even touch on these issues.
For God's sake, put your ego's aside. ASK FOR ASSISTANCE from the US NTSB and Boeing. I believe they have already offered. Ask them to send their best and they will.
@a&a:
Then include names of all those from CAA and Defense Ministry, who are involved in issuing Air worthiness certificate allowing this aircraft to operate. on ECL and hold them in custody likewise the owner. How can anyone be blamed prior to investigation of crash and its results are known. He is taken in custody because he has no political clout.
My heart goes out to each and every family member who has experienced this devastating and tragic accident.I extend my utmost condolences to the families and the victims. There is investigation going on and hope we learn from this investigation to avoid such tragic incidents in future,but I think arresting someone for this kind of an Air accident makes no sense,I never heard Pakistani agencies ever put criminals and terrorists on ECL .
well,, this is a 2nd major air accident in Pak history i.e. after crash of Air Blue, last year. As usual, a formal news of grief appears on every news channel from the leader that we would interrogate the symptoms of this tragedy honestly and faithfully, but what we find in results.....? A complete silence................ and put our necks in soil till next tragedy.... this is to and fro process shown by our leaders...... What our government get by putting the name of owner of Bhoja Air........? . "A Deal"
When deal will be done, our authorities neglect this accidents and said "There is nothing find against him..... Bad weather is responsible of this tragedy"
my question is " Is MR.
The gross abuse of ECL is shocking. If you treat the country as a prison it will become a prison.
Its FIA that certifies if a aircraft is fit to ply. If anyone is to be arrested , its the FIA chief and maybe who ever he reports to.
The names of the president, prime minister, the whole cabinet, all chief ministers/governors, bureaucrats and generals should be placed on the Exit Control List for crashing all institutions of the country!
Was Bhoja aircraft stolen from scrap yard and flew without CAA authorization. There are multi layers of check and inspection in air industry. The government and media have gone nuts.
Ridiculous! he has nothing to do with Crash. How CAA had given green signal to the Airline despite they knew the health of Plane.
The funny thing is that only the head of Bhoja is placed on ECL and arrested. We should also look into the workings of CAA and how many people palms there were greased? Arresting the owner, and not investigating the role of authorities would be a travesty of justice.
how does this poll going to infuse the basic ethics into e-media so that they report with some responsibility the next time any, God forbade, catastrophe happens anywhere. let's be realistic ..
This is sheer nonsense. The case should have been registered against the Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister for their role in not insisting and not approving the up-gradation of civil aviation facilities at all major Pakistani airports. Had the state-of-art systems been in-place, the Control Tower would have itself diverted the flight to its alternate Lahore and avoided the crash. As usual the PPP government is using its policy to put the blame on a weak party to save their own hide. You can easily confirm this by backtracking the authority which ordered the Koral SHO to register a case against the owner of the fateful airline. It will lead to Rehman Malik by order of his superiors. Every one knows that their was extreme bad weather at Islamabad/ Rawalpindi at that time but the airport was OPEN so the pilot came in to land. Same time today (6:30 pm on 21st April) the weather was just overcast with no thunder or lightening but our worthy Prime Minister did not return to Islamabad and made an emergency landing at Lahore. Who advised him? The Civil Aviation ? Then the case should have been registered against CAA and MOD and not Farooq Bhoja.
It totally seems the failure of interior ministry to put both Air Blue and Bhoja air owner made accountable, since the year our so the barvared families yet not been compansated by Air Blue , though the passenger when buys the ticket the life ensurance starts since then. Who cares for this ?
How come Farooq Bhoja's name was put on ECL and now he is being 'detained' for interrogations, when the Airblue's owner's name was never even brought up in the investigations of the carrier's crash in 2010? Just because he was a strong politician? How long can the country survive with the politicians doing anything they desire (unethical or illegal) and nobody is there to question their wrong doings?
Looks fishy. Was it an act of saboteurs? A retired professor had been dropping hints of something coming soon. Who and where is he?? :(
Can't he be responsible for purchase of old aircraft . . .???
Putting name of the owner before investigation is ridiculus and insulting to an entrpreneur. Shame on authorites.
Has the interior minister any evidence of Bhoja air chief being responsible for the crash ? This politically motivated abuse of ECL is one of the darker aspects of Pakistan today.
He would only be responsible if he had knowledge that the plane was not fit for flight, but still gave a go-ahead. That would be negligence on his part. I think it's fair to put his name on the ECL as a precaution. Nobody's accusing him just yet.
They should make an example out of this corrupt man the owner of a corrupt airline.
Ridiculous! Accidents happen everywhere in the world. The incident was tragic and the loss was enormous, no doubt about that but, accidents would keep occurring (God forbid), and putting someone's name on the ECL list would not make any airplane accident-proof.
@Mo Sheikh: Hate hate hate If it was PIA plane crash then first thing you had asked ,was that PM and AZ should resign. Please come out of hatred and be reasonable that accidents do happen everywhere for multiple reason Putting some body on ECL is not putting some one in jail
Also the public office holder who granted clearance to Bhoja Airlines for flight should be put on ECL and involved in the investigation.
The way the ECL is growing in Pakistan, it might exceed the census list one day.
Will putting him (Mr F. Bhoja) on ECL bring back the dead Suspend the licence till investigation prove the airline not responsible
rubbish, rehman malik, first put ali musa gilani and raja eprvez ashrafs names on the ECL, absolutely rubbish government and corrupt politicians trying to take advantage of the situation politically
While Ali Musa Gillan's name was somehow not put on the ECL, the Interior Minister quickly places Bhoja sb's name on the same list.
Clap Clap
dear sirs, our anguish is also equally painful when hindu women are kidnapped and converted.
why should the name of the owner of the airline be placed on the ECL... Ridiculous
Will it stop further air-crashes in Pakistan?