ISLAMABAD, nay the whole of Pakistan was shaken by the tragedy that struck the Margalla Hills on Wednesday morning when the ill-fated Airblue Airbus A321 AP-BJ flight 202, which took off from Karachi at ten minutes to eight in the morning, and before the end of the next two hours crashed into the Margalla hills, killing all 152 people on board, including passengers and crew. Speculations and conjecture are rife regarding what caused this major tragedy. The Daily Mail would not risk a guess till the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)’s inquiry committee completes its investigation and apportions blame if any regarding the factors responsible for the crash. However, some technical aspects need to be examined so that future air disasters may be averted and precious human lives spared of the agony. Benazir International Airport’s runway direction is 30/12 i.e. the alignment of the runway is in the direction of 300/120 or Northeast/Southeast. Runway direction is determined before laying down the runway keeping in view the average direction of the wind. The runway surface is asphalt and 3,287 meters or 10,785 feet long and considered adequate for jet landings and take offs. In practice, Runway 30 is generally in use and is equipped with an Instrument Landing System (ILS), which is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), such as low cloud ceilings or reduced visibility due to fog, rain, or blowing snow. Besides the ILS, which enables alignment of the approaching aircraft with runway and the correct rate of descent along a prescribed glide path, Benazir International Airport also has a Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) to inform aircrafts equipped with DME receivers regarding their distance from the runway and Very High Frequency Omni-directional Radio Range (VOR), which enables the approaching aircraft to find its direction towards or away from the runway. Additionally, the runway is also equipped with runway beacons, which provide information to the pilot regarding height, distance and equipment functioning checks to aircraft on intermediate and final approach.
Keeping in view the sensitivities around Benazir International Airport, an approach radar also guides the approaching aircraft and enables them to conduct safe landings and hands them over to the air traffic control tower once the pilot calls visual contact with the runway. Unfortunately the runway in use at the time of the crash was 12, which is not equipped with an ILS. The weather prevailing at the time of the crash was below visual minimas, i.e. it necessitated Instrument Flight Conditions. According to reports available so far, the approach radar did provide guidance to the ill-fated Airblue flight 202 till the pilot called visual contact with the runway. What transpired after that remains a mystery as to why the pilot, who had committed to land and had lowered his aircraft’s undercarriage, went around, took a wrong turn, entered the no-fly zone of Islamabad and crashed into the Margalla Hills. Did the approach radar, whose job is also to maintain vigilance, raise a hue and cry and try to alert the control tower or the pilot of his fatal blunder? The other aspect is that Benazir International Airport, which uses the Chaklala runway, is equipped with an ILS Category I, which can bring the aircraft down up to a decision height not lower than 200 feet (61 m) above touchdown zone elevation and with either a visibility not less than 800 meters (2,625 ft) or a runway visual range not less than 550 meters (1,804 ft), by which the pilot has to decide whether to execute a landing or go around if the runway is not visible. It is the responsibility of the CAA to install an upgraded cat II or III ILS at Chaklala to ensure greater safety. Perhaps CAA is also feeling the pinch of the war against terror since many international airlines have ceased operations from Benazir International airport thus badly affecting the capability of CAA to generate funds to upgrade its navigation systems. Another aspect is the rather advanced age of flight 202’s captain, who was 65 years of age and well past his prime to fly passenger airliners. PIA had retired him but Airblue continued to use his services and endanger the lives of its passengers.The Daily Mail would also like to comment on the callous and irresponsible attitude of the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, who created a big confusion on Wednesday when he said that five passengers of the ill-fated Airblue plane had survived crash. Much later he changed the statement and said no-one could survive such a disaster. His heartless and reckless statement had unnecessarily raised the hopes of relatives of the passengers, some of whom in Karachi were reported to have got their seats reserved on flights to Islamabad. The much touted National Disaster Management Authority was the last to arrive at the scene and clearly had neither the equipment or wherewithal to conduct a rescue or search mission nor it had a contingency plan to meet such a disaster. The Daily Mail strongly recommends that some heads must roll once inquiries are complete so that future disasters may be averted.
