‘Pilots Had Very Little Time’: A Pilot Decodes PIA Plane Crash
The Quint talks to the pilot of an Airbus A320 who helps analyse what might have caused the plane to crash.
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Video Editor: Vivek Gupta
The horrific crash of Pakistan International Airlines flight PK8303 from Karachi to Lahore, claimed several lives after it crashed into a residential colony near the airport after losing both its engines while it was on its way to land.
The Quint speaks to the pilot of an Airbus A320, who helps analyse what might have caused the plane to crash, based on ATC recordings and initial investigations.
The pilot, who wished to remain anonymous, said that everything was fine until the moment the aircraft was given the green signal to land after which you could hear the warning signal go off, which led to the flight having to abort the landing and perform a go-around. He added that the aforementioned events happened in the span of a minute.
Survivors of the crash have said that the plane had actually touched the runway before taking off again. The pilot says that due to the initial nose landing gear failure, the pilots might not have deemed it safe to land the first time, and which is why they had requested a go-around. But, they might not have noticed the damage to the engine which was caused during the initial landing attempt until much later.
He remarks that time was the pilots’ greatest enemy, because they didn’t have enough time to assess the problem. It was also one of the reasons why they requested a go-around, since it is standard procedure in such scenarios to buy pilots more time to assess the problem and also prepare the crew and passengers for any unforeseen circumstances. But, it was only much later that they suffered a dual loss of engines.
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