Airblue crash: Reinvestigation report to be submitted to PHC soon

CAA told to submit report before Nov 14.

PESHAWAR:

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has completed reinvestigation into the AirBlue crash and the report has been submitted to the Ministry of Defence, the senior legal adviser for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) informed the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday.

Obaidur Rehman Abbasi, the CAA legal adviser, said the report will be shared with the PHC after it is handed over to the CAA soon.

A PHC division bench comprising Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaisar was hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz member Marvi Memon against Airblue, an airline company owned by a member of the political party.

The bench gave CAA 15 days to submit a copy of the report before the next hearing on November 14.

Meanwhile, the AirBlue management, through its attorney Latif Yousafzai, sought time from the court for the compensation of legal heirs of all crash victims, saying it needed time to verify some important documents submitted by the family members of a few victims.

However, Junaid Hamid, one of the legal heirs of an AirBlue crash victim, claimed that the airline administration is reluctant to pay compensation to the victims even after being given two reminders by the Sindh High Court on July 31 and August 31.

Airblue’s attorney reasoned that if the airline can pay Rs650 million to 110 legal heirs it can also compensate the remaining 40 families. He asked the bench to adjourn the case so that the administration can complete the verification process.

The bench adjourned the case and set the next hearing for November 14, observing that the case will not be adjourned again.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.