Written By Ch. Faisal Mahmood
So Sad and heart breaking! in a tragic incident, whisked away97 precious lives laden with hopes, plans and dreams, dreams of celebrating Eid with their kith &kin. What for? Because someone somewhere did not fulfill his duty, someone was supposed to perform in very national interest to ensure the safety and security of these very precious lives. Someone somewhere was too incompetent, too selfish, too lazy, too careless, too ignorant, too unchecked, too relaxed ,too uncaring to manage, handle and fix things that needed to be fixed so the PK-8303 takeoff, fly and land safely at Karachi airport and not the tragic way A-320 fell a few hundred meters short of the its peaceful destination.
These poor people of Pakistan laden with hopes, plans and dreams should not have died like this. Someone somewhere is responsible and committer of sin with the nation.
Brave Captain Sajjad Gul and his plane could have been carrying many more passengers had a Covid-19 social-distancing regime not been in place. The Covid-19 pandemic has scorched commercial airline operations and balance sheets, but with airline managers across the world attempting to give wings to their fleets after prolonged grounding, experts highlight a key phrase: ‘No HALF MEASURES’- we at Holiday Weekly think that our measures were half, may be less than half. The necessity of flying machines being returned to service after a complete maintenance check and, more importantly, aircrew being allowed at the controls only after key proficiency checks in a full flight simulator have to be stressed repeatedly.
The crippled jet’s fiery end, while on approach, in a densely populated neighborhood lining Pakistan’s busiest airport, highlights the danger of buildings and obstacles affecting airline operations and safety. The unfortunate plane hit a residential area, a ground+4 building, now the crucial question is do houses and buildings situated so nearby to Pakistan’s busiest airport and a landing spot meet the legal requirements? Or have they been allowed to mushroom in typical Pakistani manner.
But still perhaps more urgently asked were the questions relating to the condition of the aircraft. True to form and post-haste, pure speculation masquerading as analyses was proudly paraded before a stunned audience. This was yet more proof of our tendency to jump to conclusions before all the facts are known. The aircraft was unfit, said some. Others added that the entire PIA fleet was obsolete.
It is astonishing and surprising statement “The aircraft’s landing gear has always been a grave cause for concern. Numerous ‘technical logs’ concerning this particular aircraft will validate PALPA’s contentions,” according to a statement issued by the pilots’ body.
Though this is not appropriate time to ask the question but the point is that this is the time to proclaim loudly that these people would not have died if someone somewhere had acted responsibly. The nation grieves so do we at Holiday Weekly.
We feel sad to assume that things will happen as they do. Questions will be asked, but not very hard ones; inquiries will be ordered, but the not very detailed ones, people will be punished but not the top ones and measures will be taken but the not so critical& systematic ones. And then we shall do what the nation always do: move on. Someone very well said, ‘nothing really crashes after the crash, till the next crash.’
