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Bouncing around in a plane going through heavy turbulence is never much fun. It's even more nerve-wracking when you're in the night sky above Islamabad airport in an aircraft struggling to find a gap in storm clouds through which to land.
In the early hours of 26 May, passengers flying in from Dubai lurched around for nearly three hours above the Pakistani capital. Three times, the pilot started his descent before thinking better of it and yanking his Boeing 777 back to higher altitude. Passengers struggled to concentrate on their inflight movies amid all the shaking and the sound of fellow travellers retching into sick bags. If they weren't feeling nauseous enough, the pilot piped up after the third abandoned descent to explain to the passengers that the "lights at the airport are not working". Officials at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) deny that it is even possible for the landing lights to fail at Benazir Bhutto International Airport.
But few would be surprised in a country that often seems to be coming apart at the seams. All around Pakistan, furious mobs have been rioting over ever worsening power outages. Fixing the problem by collecting outstanding electricity bills is almost impossible given that the government itself is one of the biggest debtors. In April, it emerged that all the CCTV cameras in Lahore's train station were turned off when a bomb exploded in a waiting area. State institutions often appear helpless to tackle such problems. Or they are too compromised by political considerations in a country gearing up for an election. So, whether or not Islamabad airport really was shrouded in darkness during a night-time storm last month, few board a plane these days with complete confidence in the systems intended to keep them safe.
Islamabad airport has now experienced two catastrophic crashes in as many years. On 20 April, a Boeing 737 operated by Bhoja Air went down in a storm as it was approaching to land, scatting debris and body parts over a wide area. It was the revamped airline's maiden flight from Karachi. The tragedy occurred almost two years after another storm during which an Airblue flight from Karachi sailed over the buildings that house Pakistan's bureaucrats and smashed into the side of the Margalla Hills, killing all 146 on board.
Then there is the spate of smaller incidents. Days after the Bhoja crash, two tyres on a plane burst during landing in Karachi. On the same day, another jet taking off from Lahore was found to be leaking fuel on to the runway. One former head of the country's air accident investigation board says his officials often caught private airlines taking short cuts. They once found an airline trying to patch up a damaged aircraft wheel at a car tyre puncture-repair shop. The airlines would often appeal against regulators by going to friends in the government or in Pakistan's powerful military. "Sometimes they could get away with things that were less than ideal," the former official says.
That includes lobbying the Civil Aviation Authority for waivers allowing pilots to fly longer hours than legally allowed. And many of the elderly planes now look pretty shabby. One flier reports seeing an overhead baggage compartment held closed with duct tape.
Bhoja airline first started in 1993 but was closed down in 2000 after failing to pay £620,000 in outstanding dues. The business restarted this year with an ultra-low-cost ticket offering. It leased aircraft from a South African company that were more than 30 years old. Such elderly planes, described by one civil aviation official as little better than "scrap", come with very high maintenance costs. Despite the old planes and alarming corporate history, officials who have seen the preliminary findings of the official inquiry say the blame has been put squarely on the pilot. The report is said to reveal that the retired air force pilot was very experienced but had not flown any planes for at least a year before taking to the skies with Bhoja.
"Our pilots are under much greater stress than someone working for Emirates or Lufthansa because they happen to live in a country called Pakistan," said Siraj ul Mulk, a retired pilot himself. "They can't sleep properly because there is load shedding all night, their neighbours get kidnapped for ransom or burgled. These are the sorts of issues they bring with them into the cockpit." But he suspects the issues most on the mind of the unfortunate Bhoja pilot were commercial ones. Ul Mulk worries that the pilot may have been concerned with burning extra fuel if he had diverted all the way to Lahore, so he pressed on into the storm.
Rashid Ali, an academic who teaches avionics at the University of Hertfordshire, says senior aviation officials in Pakistan have told him that two other planes diverted to Lahore that evening rather than attempting to land in Islamabad. He wonders if the full truth will ever come out. "But in Pakistan it is easier to brush things under the carpet and just blame the dead pilot," he says.
Perilous journeys: aviation in Pakistan | Jon Boone | World news | The Guardian
Please visit the website to read comments below the story.
In the early hours of 26 May, passengers flying in from Dubai lurched around for nearly three hours above the Pakistani capital. Three times, the pilot started his descent before thinking better of it and yanking his Boeing 777 back to higher altitude. Passengers struggled to concentrate on their inflight movies amid all the shaking and the sound of fellow travellers retching into sick bags. If they weren't feeling nauseous enough, the pilot piped up after the third abandoned descent to explain to the passengers that the "lights at the airport are not working". Officials at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) deny that it is even possible for the landing lights to fail at Benazir Bhutto International Airport.
But few would be surprised in a country that often seems to be coming apart at the seams. All around Pakistan, furious mobs have been rioting over ever worsening power outages. Fixing the problem by collecting outstanding electricity bills is almost impossible given that the government itself is one of the biggest debtors. In April, it emerged that all the CCTV cameras in Lahore's train station were turned off when a bomb exploded in a waiting area. State institutions often appear helpless to tackle such problems. Or they are too compromised by political considerations in a country gearing up for an election. So, whether or not Islamabad airport really was shrouded in darkness during a night-time storm last month, few board a plane these days with complete confidence in the systems intended to keep them safe.
Islamabad airport has now experienced two catastrophic crashes in as many years. On 20 April, a Boeing 737 operated by Bhoja Air went down in a storm as it was approaching to land, scatting debris and body parts over a wide area. It was the revamped airline's maiden flight from Karachi. The tragedy occurred almost two years after another storm during which an Airblue flight from Karachi sailed over the buildings that house Pakistan's bureaucrats and smashed into the side of the Margalla Hills, killing all 146 on board.
Then there is the spate of smaller incidents. Days after the Bhoja crash, two tyres on a plane burst during landing in Karachi. On the same day, another jet taking off from Lahore was found to be leaking fuel on to the runway. One former head of the country's air accident investigation board says his officials often caught private airlines taking short cuts. They once found an airline trying to patch up a damaged aircraft wheel at a car tyre puncture-repair shop. The airlines would often appeal against regulators by going to friends in the government or in Pakistan's powerful military. "Sometimes they could get away with things that were less than ideal," the former official says.
That includes lobbying the Civil Aviation Authority for waivers allowing pilots to fly longer hours than legally allowed. And many of the elderly planes now look pretty shabby. One flier reports seeing an overhead baggage compartment held closed with duct tape.
Bhoja airline first started in 1993 but was closed down in 2000 after failing to pay £620,000 in outstanding dues. The business restarted this year with an ultra-low-cost ticket offering. It leased aircraft from a South African company that were more than 30 years old. Such elderly planes, described by one civil aviation official as little better than "scrap", come with very high maintenance costs. Despite the old planes and alarming corporate history, officials who have seen the preliminary findings of the official inquiry say the blame has been put squarely on the pilot. The report is said to reveal that the retired air force pilot was very experienced but had not flown any planes for at least a year before taking to the skies with Bhoja.
"Our pilots are under much greater stress than someone working for Emirates or Lufthansa because they happen to live in a country called Pakistan," said Siraj ul Mulk, a retired pilot himself. "They can't sleep properly because there is load shedding all night, their neighbours get kidnapped for ransom or burgled. These are the sorts of issues they bring with them into the cockpit." But he suspects the issues most on the mind of the unfortunate Bhoja pilot were commercial ones. Ul Mulk worries that the pilot may have been concerned with burning extra fuel if he had diverted all the way to Lahore, so he pressed on into the storm.
Rashid Ali, an academic who teaches avionics at the University of Hertfordshire, says senior aviation officials in Pakistan have told him that two other planes diverted to Lahore that evening rather than attempting to land in Islamabad. He wonders if the full truth will ever come out. "But in Pakistan it is easier to brush things under the carpet and just blame the dead pilot," he says.
Perilous journeys: aviation in Pakistan | Jon Boone | World news | The Guardian
Please visit the website to read comments below the story.
