Det viser seg at pilotene var mer opptatt av diskusjoner rundt korona ved landing og at det heller ikke kom noen meldinger fra flygeledere om skader på flyet etter mislykket landingsforsøk med hjulene oppe.
Mest skremmende er kanskje det at 262 av landets 860 aktive piloter innehar forfalskede flylisenser eller har jukset på eksamener viser en undersøkelse fra i fjor. Kommersielle piloter må årlig foreta nye tester og eksamener for å opprettholde godkjenning av lisenser.
PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) har flere ganger fått flyforbud til en rekke land grunnet mangler ved flysikkerheten.
Pakistan plane crashed after pilots distracted by coronavirus fears
Preliminary report finds ‘human error’ – including failing to put the wheels down – to blame for crash that killed 98 people in Karachi
Investigators found the plane was at more than twice the correct altitude when it first approached the runway, and the tower advised the pilots to circle for a more gradual descent, the report states.
But, instead of going around, the pilots attempted to land anyway – even though they had raised the landing gear.
Air traffic control saw the Airbus A320’s engines scrape the runway with a shower of sparks, but did not tell the cockpit. The badly damaged engines failed as the plane turned to attempt a second landing.
Pakistan’s aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan told parliament the pilots had been discussing the coronavirus as they attempted to land and had disengaged the craft’s autopilot.
Khan also pointed to a troubling review of pilot credentials that is bound to reverberate through the country’s airline industry. He said a probe last year found that 262 of Pakistan’s 860 active pilots had fake licenses or had cheated on exams – including an unspecified number of PIA pilots.