Cockpit voice recorder of crashed PIA plane yet to be recovered

By Masood Sattar Khan

(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

The cockpit voice recorder of the crashed PIA plane has yet not been recovered from the debris scattered on narrow lanes of the crash site located in the Karachi’s densely populated area of Model Colony in the close proximity of airport. 

The black box of the plane, which crashed on May 22, has however been retrieved and sent to the Airbus headquarters in France for decoding, the aviation sources disclosed. 

A spokesman of the national carrier has appealed to the people that if they found any part of the crashed plane they should handover the same to the concerned authorities. 

The 11-member Airbus investigating team, having reached Karachi, will resume their investigation by visiting the crash site on May 27. 

The French team, on May 26, inspected the damaged houses, debris and the runway which the captain of the ill-fated plane, Sajjad Gul, reportedly used for an abortive landing.

The team checked the run and apron from different angles. They asked questions like how many times the plane was grounded in a year and if repair on plane was done.

They also collected information about how many times the landing gear repair was carried out besides its maintenance on technical ground. 

They sought the names of the engineers having performed the repair work. The French team was provided with the one year performance record of the plane. 

The unfortunate plane crash claimed all but two fortunate passengers who survived miraculously. So far out of 97 dead, the identity of 44 passengers has been established. Squadron Leader Zain-ul-Arif Khan’s body was among those identified through DNA. 

Meanwhile, the Interior Minister, Ejaz Shah, visited the residence of captain of the PIA crashed plane, Sajjad Gul, and expressed condolence with his father. “Sajjaid Gul tried his best till the end but unfortunately nature had other ideas,” he noted. The father of the deceased pilot has appealed to refrain from such statement that can hurt family feelings. 

The Sindh Governor, Imran Ismail, visited Civil Hospital Karachi and enquired the welfare of the injured persons. He assured that the government will carry out repair of the damaged houses.