There was fire everywhere, says the man who survived Pakistan plane crash

Karachi: At least two passengers on the Airbus SE A320 jet survived the impact, Sindh government spokesman Murtaza Wahab said in a tweet. One of them was Zafar Masud, president of the Bank of Punjab, he said.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah inquired after the health of banker Zafar Mahmood, who miraculously survived, a provincial government spokesman Abdur Rashid Channa said in a statement.

When the chief minister said "Murad is here", the survivor replied "Thank you so much. God has been merciful", the statement said.

"There was fire all over, and everybody was shouting after the plane accident. I opened my safety belt, and headed towards the light," Muhammad Zubair, another survivor, who was sitting in the eighth column, said on a nearby transmission. 

Pakistan's affable avionics authority said there had been 91 travelers and eight team on board the Airbus A320. 

Losses remembered individuals for the ground when the plane went down subsequent to announcing motor difficulty. 

Flight PK 8303 from Lahore was conveying 91 travelers and eight team, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a refreshed count. TV film indicated vehicles and homes ablaze in the area close to the air terminal in the country's business center point. The A320 slender body fly initially entered administration in 2004, and was worked by PIA since 2014, Airbus said. 

The pilots in Friday's accident announced losing power from the two motors, as per a chronicle from LiveATC.net, which gathers sound feeds from air-traffic controllers. 

"Sir, we have lost motors," the pilot said to a controller, as indicated by the LiveATC recording.

‘Mayday. Mayday’

About 30 seconds later, the pilot again radioed a distress call: “Mayday. Mayday. Mayday."

It’s the second plane crash for the state-owned carrier in less than four years. Pakistan International’s chairman resigned in late 2016, less than a week after the crash of an ATR 42 turboprop killed 47 people.

“Although the public sector national carrier’s administration has been mismanaged for decades, this never reflected the engineering competence," said Burzine Waghmar, a member of the Centre for the Study of Pakistan at SOAS University of London. “PIA’s maintenance and engineering is second to none."

The airline, founded in 1946, suffered as many as 51 safety-related incidents before Friday’s crash, according to data from Aviation Safety Network.

The crashed A320 joined the airline six years ago and had a major check in March, according to a statement by the local Civil Aviation Authority. It carried out eight flights since March 21 after the nation restarted flights after easing its coronavirus related lockdown.

The jet was previously flown by China Eastern Airlines from 2004 until 2014, the Associated Press reported, citing ownership records. It was then added to PIA’s fleet under a lease from GE Capital Aviation Services, the AP said.

Pandemic Complications

Airbus said it was providing technical assistance to France’s Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses and to Pakistani authorities in charge of the investigation. The company is working on getting a



team to the crash site, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The coronavirus pandemic could complicate things as investigators traveling to the site would have to comply with local quarantine regulations unless they receive special exemptions. Pakistan will also form a four-member body to investigate, and expects to submit an initial statement within a month, its civil aviation authority said.

Engine manufacturer CFM International and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are monitoring the situation, representatives for both said. CFM is a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Safran SA.

The A320’s pilot had reported a “technical fault" before deciding to go around instead of landing, the carrier’s chief Malik said in a video message before visiting the crash site. PIA is trying to determine what the technical fault was, Malik said.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, on Twitter, said he’s in touch with the CEO and that an investigation would be conducted soon. Pakistan’s army tweeted that troops had reached the site to conduct relief-and-rescue efforts.

The plane damaged as many as 20 houses, Ahmed Edhi, spokesman for rescue agency Edhi, said by phone from the accident site.

Crash Possibilities

Photos purportedly taken of the plane after its initial attempt at landing appear to show damage to the underside of both engines, suggesting that its landing gear wasn’t down. The photos were posted on the Aviation Herald website.

One possibility is that the plane ran out of fuel while attempting to circle back to the runway to land, said Jeff Guzzetti, the former head of accident investigations at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane clearly had enough power to climb again, so the engines were working in spite of any damage they may have sustained, said Guzzetti. Pictures from the scene show there was a fire, but it appears to have been less severe than what would be expected in a typical crash, which would suggest they were low on fuel, he said.

Guzzetti cautioned that it’s too early to say anything for certain. “You certainly don’t want to rule anything out," he said. “We don’t know enough at this point."

Eid ul-Fitr

Like other carriers worldwide, PIA struggled with plane groundings in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company, which hasn’t made a profit since 2004, asked the government for more financial support in March. Friday’s crash happened as the nation started holidays to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, when many Pakistanis return home to celebrate.

But signs of a recovery were in sight as the country began emerging from a two-month lockdown. Pakistan recently began resuming domestic flights last week, starting with 20% of capacity.

Globally, airline safety had improved last year, with an accident rate of one per every 884,000 flights compared with an average of 640,000 for 2014-18, according to the International Air Transport Association.

The Pakistan crash comes at a terrible time for airlines, which are staring at a $314 billion loss in ticket sales this year, as the Coronavirus outbreak idles 70% of global capacity, IATA has said.