Pilot, ATC errors caused plane crash in Karachi.

ISLAMABAD -- Minister for Civil Aviation Ghulam Sarwar disclosed in the National Assembly session yesterday that the PIA plane crash was the result of 'human error' by the pilot and air traffic control.

Presenting the preliminary report of the PIA plane crash to the house, the minister gave reference to the voice record box of the ill-fated Airbus A320 and said that the pilots, at the time of landing, were busy in conversation about Covid-19 pandemic and 'over-confident' to safely manage the landing.

The plane crash had resulted in the deaths of 97 out of 99 persons on board the flight. One girl on the ground also died after suffering burn injuries while two passengers miraculously survived the crash.

'The voice box reveals the pilots in the cockpit were discussing coronavirus. The pliot and co-pilot were overconfident to manage safe landing, when the control tower drew their attention,' said the minister quoting the report.

He shared this preliminary report of the plane crash on the demand of opposition parties. Earlier, the minister had shared the report with Prime Minister Imran Khan the other day.

The minister said that the Airbus A320 was perfectly fit to fly and both the pilots were also good in their health but discussing impacts of COVID-19 at the time of landing, which was against the set protocols. 'Plane was fit to fly, and there was no technical fault in it as per the record,' he said, mentioning that a complete report would be shared after a year.

Sharing the details, he said the pilot initially failed to apply the landing gear correctly, which caused the aircraft scraping the runway before taking off again. The minister further said that the air traffic controllers had also failed to inform the pilot that the engines had been left badly damaged.

'Air traffic controller should have informed about the engine situation. The control tower did not inform the pilot, which was at fault too. When the plane took off again, both the engines were damaged,' he said.

About the finding of the report, the minister said that the data from the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was decoded in the presence of foreign experts.

'Both the pilots on the final approach did not identify any technical fault. At a distance of 10 miles from the runway, the plane should have been at an altitude of 2,500 feet but it was around 7,220 feet. This was the first irregularity,' said the minister sharing the details.

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