KARACHI: Pakistani aviation authorities have told Pakistan International Airlines that the pilot of a passenger plane that crashed into a residential district of Karachi last month had ignored air traffic control’s instructions for landing, a PIA spokesman said on Wednesday.
The PIA Airbus A320 crashed on May 22 while trying to land after the pilots reported the loss of both engines. Ninety seven people on board were killed and two survived. At least one person was reported to have died on the ground.
Initial reports suggested the plane scraped its engines along the runway on a first attempt to land following what appeared to be an unstable approach, arriving steep and fast.
In a letter sent to PIA, the Civil Aviation Authority said an approach controller twice told the pilot to discontinue its approach as he came into land but he did not comply.
As it neared landing, the plane’s ground speed was above the runway threshold, the letter quoted the controller as saying.
It lifted up from the runway surface and crashed over Model Colony while attempting a second approach, the letter said.
“Yes, we have received the letter, they are documenting it,” Abdullah Hafeez Khan, PIA’s general manager for corporate communications told Reuters.
He declined to comment on the assertions made in the letter.
The flight had been observed as being high for approach at as it passed Makli, about 100 km east of Karachi, but the pilot said he was comfortable for the descent, the letter said. He was also cautioned a second time.
The plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data box are being decoded in France by French air accident agency BEA.
Pakistan’s Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said that an initial report on the crash will be presented to parliament on June 22.
Aviation safety experts say air crashes typically have multiple causes and it is too early to determine the reasons behind the air disaster, which is Pakistan’s worst since 2012.
Pakistani aviation authority says PIA pilot ignored air traffic control
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Pakistani aviation authority says PIA pilot ignored air traffic control
- The PIA Airbus A320 crashed on May 22 while trying to land after the pilots reported the loss of both engines
- Aviation safety experts say air crashes typically have multiple causes and it is too early to determine the reasons behind the air disaster
Junta leader Gen. Mamdi Doumbouya is declared winner of Guinea’s election, provisional results show
- Mamady Doumbouya took power in 2021 coup
CONAKRY, Guinea: Guinea coup leader Mamady Doumbouya has been elected president, according to provisional results announced on Tuesday, completing the return to civilian rule in the bauxite- and iron ore-rich West African nation.
The former special forces commander, thought to be in his early 40s, seized power in 2021, toppling then-President Alpha Conde, who had been in office since 2010. It was one in a series of nine coups that have reshaped politics in West and Central Africa since 2020.
The provisional results announced on Tuesday showed Doumbouya winning 86.72 percent of the December 28 vote, an absolute majority that allows him to avoid a runoff.
The Supreme Court has eight days to validate the results in the event of any challenge.
Doumbouya’s victory, which gives him a seven-year mandate, was widely expected. Conde and Cellou Dalein Diallo, Guinea’s longtime opposition leader, are in exile, which left Doumbouya to face a fragmented field of eight challengers.
Doumbouya reversed pledge not to run
The original post-coup charter in Guinea barred junta members from running in elections, but a constitution dropping those restrictions was passed in a September referendum.
Djenabou Toure, the country’s top election official who announced the results on Tuesday night, said turnout was 80,95 percent. However voter participation appeared tepid in the capital Conakry, and opposition politicians rejected a similarly high turnout figure for the September referendum.
Guinea holds the world’s largest bauxite reserves and the richest untapped iron ore deposit at Simandou, officially launched last month after years of delay.
Doumbouya has claimed credit for pushing the project forward and ensuring Guinea benefits from its output.
His government this year also revoked the license of Emirates Global Aluminium’s subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation following a refinery dispute, transferring the unit’s assets to a state-owned firm.
The turn toward resource nationalism — echoed in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — has boosted his popularity, as has his relative youth in a country where the median age is about 19.
Political space restricted, UN says
Political debate has been muted under Doumbouya. Civil society groups accuse his government of banning protests, curbing press freedom and restricting opposition activity.
The campaign period was “severely restricted, marked by intimidation of opposition actors, apparently politically motivated enforced disappearances, and constraints on media freedom,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said last week.
On Monday, opposition candidate Faya Lansana Millimono told a press conference the election was marred by “systematic fraudulent practices” and that observers were prevented from monitoring the voting and counting processes.
The government did not respond to a request for comment.
