Farooq Bhoja placed on ECL: Malik

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that name of Farooq Bhoja, the owner of the plane that crashed in the federal capital on Friday killing 127 persons onboard, has been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL).
Talking to media persons at scene of the crash and in Pakistan Institute Medical Sciences (PIMS), Rehman Malik said that the Bhoja Air plane crash incident would be thoroughly investigated through a judicial probing team and those responsible for it would be brought to book.
He also informed that two special flights were tasked to bring the heirs of the victims to Islamabad from Karachi.
Speaking to media during his visit to plane crash scene, Malik said, “It is being said that the aircraft was pretty old, so it has been decided to investigate thoroughly the air worthiness of the Bhoja Air aircraft.”
He said that the causes will be investigated, whether it was any fault in the aircraft, it was lightning, the bad weather or any other factor that caused loss of precious lives.
The plane’s flight data recording systems, key to any investigation, have been recovered.
On his arrival at the PIMS Hospital in Islamabad, Interior Minister Rehman Malik received furious reaction from heirs of the victims who died in Bhoja Air crash. It should be mentioned that the last major plane crash in the country and Pakistan’s worst occurred in July 2010 when an Airbus A321 aircraft operated by domestic carrier Airblue crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad, killing all 152 people aboard.
A government investigation blamed the pilot for veering off course amid stormy weather.
Bhoja Air started domestic operations in Pakistan in 1993 and eventually expanded to international flights to the United Arab Emirates in 1998. The company suspended operations in 2001 due to financial difficulties but resumed them in 2012.
Nasim Ahmed, a former crash investigator, said it appeared that the age and air worthiness of the plane were unlikely causes. He said that a combination of factors during the most crucial stage of the flight, the landing, was probably to blame, possibly the weather or some form of unexpected incident that caused the pilot to lose vital awareness of the plane’s location.