Pakistan

Shaheen Air crash-lands in Lahore, CAA denies reports of casualties

Authority says all passengers remained unhurt as flight overran runway

Web Desk/rana Tanveer November 03, 2015

PHOTO: MALIK SHAFIQ / EXPRESS

LAHORE: A Lahore-bound Shaheen Air flight, carrying 121 passengers and crew members, made an ‘emergency landing’ at the Allama Iqbal International Airport on Tuesday.

It was initially reported that at least 10 passengers received ‘minor’ injuries when the plane landed due to a burst tyre; however, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) denied the claims, saying all passengers remained unhurt and that flight NL-142 landed at the airport and shortly afterwards went off the runway.

Noticing the unusual movement of the aircraft, the control tower dispatched a fire tender to the site while the airport manager along with other CAA officials reached the site to evacuate passengers and crew from the plane, the CAA statement said.

Technical fault: CM’s plane makes emergency landing

No person was injured in the incident and the main runway was operational without any hindrance, the statement added.

“Director General CAA has ordered an inquiry to investigate the incident and the safety investigation team has started investigation. As a precautionary measure, CAA is ensuring inspection of all aircraft,” the statement read.

https://twitter.com/zainasghar98/status/661417457584852992/photo/1

https://twitter.com/AirportPakistan/status/661413786331418624

https://twitter.com/AirportPakistan/status/661414693106421761

Russian airline makes emergency landing at Lahore airport

All passengers were evacuated safely from the aircraft, a CAA official told The Express Tribune.

In September, an aircraft carrying Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his colleagues made an emergency landing after it developed a technical fault after take-off. A spokesman for the Punjab government said the chief minister was on his way to Islamabad to attend a meeting. He said a few minutes after take-off, the aircraft developed a fault. He said the pilot had initially failed to land the aircraft.

CAA statement available with The Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (19)

Reader | 8 years ago | Reply @Saad: Easlily said than done!!! Running an airline is very expensive. It requires a lot, which unfortunately many airlines of the world cannot provide. Most airlines are subsidized by their governments, they cannot survive on revenue generated by passengers.

well wisher. | 8 years ago | Reply @Airliner: Well written and explained. There are many aspects to airline safety. Human lives are at risk, every time an aircraft takes off. If airlines for any reason cannot do what is expected to provide safety in all respects, then it would be wise to simply close the company than to risk lives. The spike in aviation accidents suggests that there are many things wrong in the aviation industry.

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brar | 8 years ago | Reply @SJ: It reminds me a similar incedent which happened when my daughter was travelling from Norway along with her one year son in a Fin Air plane and were flying in the airspace and she felt as if the plan was running on a village but it was due to bad weather but she said those 10 to 15 minutes were horrible. Pray all passengers are unhurt.

SJ | 8 years ago | Reply I was flying Shaheen Air, Islamabad to Karachi on October 19, 2015, with my young son and truly I will tell you first hand that this airline is risking the lives of their passengers and crew. There is a plane crash just waiting to happen, the only thing saving people's lives on these planes is the excellent pilots, who manage to somehow avert an otherwise devastating situation these planes have time and again managed to escape. Our plane started shaking, left to right, about 12 minutes after takeoff. The oxygen masks fell. I suddenly noticed a strong smell of smoke/fire. We were told by the racing cabin crew to put on our oxygen masks immediately, seatbelts fastened and remain seated. This plane shook for about 15 minutes, I think. It was not turbulence. It was horrific, especially when you see your child and think that this plane may crash/explode. We were seated on the right hand side of the plane and had a clear view of the wing behind us. The man sitting next to me, beside the window, was a mechanical engineer, and when things settled he told me the engine has gone kaput, he even mentioned something technical about seeing frost on a particular part. He said the captain must have had some reason not to do an emergency landing (later we found out that both Islamabad and Lahore were experiencing storms soon after our plane departed, do possibly he couldn't return to Islamabad) When we eventually landed, this man smiled and said that just by the way we landed, he could tell that there was only 1 engine working. He was using technical language, of which I only understood "thrust" and "acceleration". The pilot and cabin crew deserve medals, for their composure and expertise, but I will never forget the look of terror on the cabin crew's faces or the feeling that this is what it feels like for people who are about to die in a plane disaster. Trust me, it's just a matter of time, before Shaheen has a horrific plane crash. God forbid.

Airliner | 8 years ago | Reply The SPIKE in aircraft inccident/accident rate in pakistan should raise high level safety alerts in CAA. This could not have been caused by a one single cause. When we say that a proper safety investigation into the matter needs to be done, what we are really asking for, is a root cause analysis. (Finding out The cause of the cause). Starting with how the aircraft was dispatched & its technical history, pilot rest & duty times before they started this duty, pilot training records, flight planning, Flight Data gathered from the black box to study the final stages of the flight, the type of instrument approach procedure the flight crew was carrying out, the approach procedure design by Caa for the SECONDARY RUNWAY & finaly to determain if it was a pilot error or an aircraft technical fault in the main landing gear system. Normally, pilots can redo the whole approach by going around if the first on gets destabilized. WAS THIS ONE???? Only a true investigation could tell. And please people, passenger comments are never accurate & don't conclude or prejudge anything from what they say. The kind of aviation IQ Pakistani passengers have, it could be highly embarrassing. It could be a help in some cases only. Untill the root cause is not found nothing would be learned out of this aircraft accident/serious incident. Im sure, there is a lot to learn out of this investigation. Aviation is a learning process if companies and regulators keep learning, and if they don't then its a deadly game or even a second degree murder in countries where there is very strong implementations of safety rules. Happy landings & good luck shaheen & the concerned flight crew. Its easy to comment but good job saving a disaster.

Zafar | 8 years ago | Reply @Strategic death: American. Boeing 737-400

JAM | 8 years ago | Reply @khan: Boeing 321? seriously?

Acorn Guts | 8 years ago | Reply Ran-off is a bit misleading. Early reports suggest plane landed on soft ground and then over the taxiway which caused the landing gear separation. The METARS for Lahore suggest poor visibility at the time of landing, I am wondering if there's been a pilot error i.e. disregarding minimums etc.

Jahanzaib | 8 years ago | Reply Its sheer mind-boggling how pakistanis still have the guts to travel with PIA and all the pakistani airlines ?!?? .... WOW

khan | 8 years ago | Reply it was Boeing 321. tyre brusted

optimist | 8 years ago | Reply @harshvardhan You might considering writing "commercial planes" am sure you and those who precede you know what to expect from some planes and pilots..a refresher perhaps?

Ghostrider | 8 years ago | Reply @Harshvardhan: By this logic what do you expect from Russian and Malaysian airlines. You can tvent out your domestic anger on public websites

Fawad Gilani | 8 years ago | Reply I remember a time 10 years or so ago I saw their tyres being repaired at the caltex pump outside their offices and someone took a picture and it was in the newspapers!

ahsan | 8 years ago | Reply @Harshvardhan: we expect Indian envy from anything we have.

Harshvardhan | 8 years ago | Reply What do u expect from pak planes and airports

Saad | 8 years ago | Reply Shaheen really needs to level up its game. Get rid of all old aircrafts, invest in some comparatively new aircrafts. Please.

Mudassir | 8 years ago | Reply What else do you expect from Shaheen Air.. PIA is at least safe if not luxurious.

Strategic death | 8 years ago | Reply Is it the chinese plane ?

AYK | 8 years ago | Reply hope every one is safe...

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