Airline boss in protective custody as Pakistan crash investigation begins
Source: Agencies |
April 22, 2012, Sunday
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PAKISTAN blocked the head of an airline whose jet crashed near the capital from leaving the country and ordered him into protective custody yesterday, as it began an investigation into its second major air disaster in less than two years.
Officials yesterday promised a full investigation into the crash that killed 127 people, saying they were examining all possibilities - from a technical fault to the age of the Boeing 737.
Grieving relatives claiming the remains of loved ones at a hospital expressed grief and anger over the crash in a storm as the plane approached Islamabad on a flight from Karachi.
With wreckage scattered over one square kilometer of wheat fields, officials said there were no survivors.
The plane's black box, which records flight data, was recovered Friday night, authorities said.
At a press conference yesterday, Nadeem Khan Yousafzai, director-general of Pakistan's Civil Air Authority, said the plane was locked into the instrument landing system, an approach system providing precision guidance, when it suddenly dropped from 883 meters to 609 meters.
"It just went down into a dive," he said. "Then contact was lost and the blip disappeared from the radar."
"What happened in this period, that has to be investigated. Was there a downdraft, was there an engine failure?"
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, speaking earlier, said: "Until investigations are completed, we cannot jump to any conclusions." He has ordered a judicial commission to probe the accident.
Bhoja Air, a small domestic airline which only resumed operations last month after being suspended in 2001 due to financial difficulties, said weather was the cause of the accident.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Farooq Bhoja, head of Bhoja Air, had been put on the "exit control list," meaning he cannot leave Pakistan. Such a ban is often put on someone suspected or implicated in a criminal case.
Malik later said that the airline "seems to be at fault as it had acquired a very old aircraft."
"If the airline management doesn't have enough money it doesn't mean you go and buy a 30-year-old aircraft, as if it were a rickshaw, and start an airline."
Many of the relatives gathered at the hospital had flown from Karachi to identify victims.
"My brothers are gone! My brothers are gone!" wailed Mohammad Shahzad, slumping to the ground.
The last major crash in the country, Pakistan's worst, occurred in July 2010, when an Airbus A321 crashed near Islamabad, killing all 152 people aboard.
Officials yesterday promised a full investigation into the crash that killed 127 people, saying they were examining all possibilities - from a technical fault to the age of the Boeing 737.
Grieving relatives claiming the remains of loved ones at a hospital expressed grief and anger over the crash in a storm as the plane approached Islamabad on a flight from Karachi.
With wreckage scattered over one square kilometer of wheat fields, officials said there were no survivors.
The plane's black box, which records flight data, was recovered Friday night, authorities said.
At a press conference yesterday, Nadeem Khan Yousafzai, director-general of Pakistan's Civil Air Authority, said the plane was locked into the instrument landing system, an approach system providing precision guidance, when it suddenly dropped from 883 meters to 609 meters.
"It just went down into a dive," he said. "Then contact was lost and the blip disappeared from the radar."
"What happened in this period, that has to be investigated. Was there a downdraft, was there an engine failure?"
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, speaking earlier, said: "Until investigations are completed, we cannot jump to any conclusions." He has ordered a judicial commission to probe the accident.
Bhoja Air, a small domestic airline which only resumed operations last month after being suspended in 2001 due to financial difficulties, said weather was the cause of the accident.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Farooq Bhoja, head of Bhoja Air, had been put on the "exit control list," meaning he cannot leave Pakistan. Such a ban is often put on someone suspected or implicated in a criminal case.
Malik later said that the airline "seems to be at fault as it had acquired a very old aircraft."
"If the airline management doesn't have enough money it doesn't mean you go and buy a 30-year-old aircraft, as if it were a rickshaw, and start an airline."
Many of the relatives gathered at the hospital had flown from Karachi to identify victims.
"My brothers are gone! My brothers are gone!" wailed Mohammad Shahzad, slumping to the ground.
The last major crash in the country, Pakistan's worst, occurred in July 2010, when an Airbus A321 crashed near Islamabad, killing all 152 people aboard.
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