Palpa reckons pilot-fatigue might have caused crash

Retired PIA employees express sorrow
Crash termed 2nd deadliest in country history
ISLAMABAD: The history of Pakistan airline witnessed second deadliest air crash on rainy Wednesday morning, when a private airline carrying 152 passengers crashed into Margalla hills surrounding the Capital, killing more than 100 people and wounded many.
Before that, the deadliest civilian plane crash was a PIA Airbus A300 that crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on its approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, killing 167 people in September 1992.
Earlier, a passenger plane crash, was a Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27 plane that came down on July 10, 2006, killing 45 people in the first major aviation accident in Pakistan.
Office-bearers of PIA Retired Employees Association (PIAREA) have expressed their shock and sorrow over crash of an Airblue flight near Islamabad on Wednesday. In a joint statement issued here by PIAREA Chief Organiser Mohammad Aslam Aasi, President Syed Tahir Hasan Chiefy, General Secretary Mohammad Younus Kakakhel and Press Secretary Mohammad Khan Sial expressed on behalf of the association full sympathy and offered cooperation to the members of affected families at this movement of sorrow.
They also prayed for early recovery of the injured people and of rest to the departed souls in eternal peace.
President of Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA), Captain Sohail Baloch said Margalla Hills plane crash may be attributed to pilot's fatigue. "The pilot may be suffering from accumulated fatigue because they are not given adequate leaves," he told a private news channel.
Captain Sohail Baloch said the route was not a no-fly zone, as speculated. The plane exceeded the safety distance due to bad weather. He said this decision was, again, taken by the pilot who could not determine appropriate landing route and added the ISL system's access ends a little before Islamabad and the pilot had to resort to visual queues for landing. There could be other reasons to the crash, which will only be uncovered after completion of investigation, he added. Airport sources said the Air Blue flight ED-202 took off at 7:50 am from Karachi to Islamabad and crashed at 9:50 a.m. It lost communication with the control tower due to bad weather. -Agencies