LAHORE: No one made it out alive on December 7 last year, as Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-661, carrying 48 passengers and crew, crashed on the way to Islamabad from Chitral.
Recently conducted investigations regarding the plane crash revealed that the crew’s carelessness while performing their duties led to the death of everyone on board.
According to audio tapes obtained from the cockpit of the ill-fated plane, the pilot was accompanied by an air hostess instead of the co-pilot and second officer at the time of accident.
The air hostess’ conversation with the control tower also confirms that pilot Jangua was busy capturing the valley scenes with his camera. According to reports, the mentioned pilot was fond of this hobby and used to do this quite often.
The communication between the hostess and the control tower lost for a little while and at these critical situations, the second officer’s presence is necessary, who acts according to the directions mentioned on the check-list. However, the voice of second officer couldn’t be heard during the whole recording.
The airhostess attempted to contact PIA offices in Islamabad but all the lines were busy at that time.
The control tower and ill-fated flight’s communication was lost for 40 seconds and was restored again, but the control tower wasn’t able to locate the plane on radar system. This was the last time any contact was made between control tower and the cockpit crew and the mutual conversation between the crew members in the cockpit could be heard in the recording.
It is presumed that the ill-fated flight crashed during these moments. The audio conversation also revealed that the left engine of the plane got failed followed by the failure of electronic system. The cockpit’s contact with the control tower lost frequently during the flight.
