The initial enquiry report on previous month’s Bhoja plane crash was submitted to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Defence on Wednesday.
According to the report, the plane was grounded last year after remaining in use for 26 years, while this incident apparently appears to be merely “an accident”.
In a meeting of the NA Standing Committee for Defence held with MNA Azra Fazal in chair, enquiry committee chief Mujahid Islam said the ill-fated plane was manufactured in 1985, and was procured by South Africa from Britain in 1999, and was grounded in 2011.
Thereon Bhoja Airline acquired it on lease in the current year, and had made 60 hours of flight for the company. Shortly before the disaster, the plane was last seen on the radar six miles away from the airport. The initial report on the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and black box is expected from Washington on May 7. The representatives of the plane’s insurance company have been called here. Mujahid Islam said that according to his past experience, the Bhoja crash was an accident, but all reasons should be investigated, as blaming the weather only was not correct, as other planes were also landing in the same weather. Committee member Shahid Khaqan Abbasi demanded to wrap up the FIR on plane crash, saying it was merely “an accident”. FIA investigations should also be put on hold, he asked.
The committee has called for the fitness certificate of the plane and the details of the pilot’s experience. The committee recommended the deletion of Section 302 from the FIR, while directing for the earliest completion of the enquiry.
Bhoja plane crash was merely ‘an accident’: report
