ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reprimanded the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for failing to complete the inquiry into the deadly crash of PK-661 that happened back in 2016 near Havelian.
The petition was filed by the mother of the ill-fated flight’s co-pilot who had demanded a judicial investigation into the accident.
During the hearing, the CAA said that it wants eight more months to conduct investigations; however, a disgruntled Justice Aamir Farooq rejected the request saying that the past 26 months were more than enough for an inquiry.
On December 7, 2016, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-661 from Chitral crashed in the hills of Gagan, some seven kilometres away from Havelian city.
Popular Islamic scholar Junaid Jamshed was among the 47 other passengers who died in the plane crash.
During the hearing, the court was told that several of the aircraft’s parts were made by French and American firms and the investigation was being delayed because of “slow-paced communication with the manufacturers”.
However, the judge refused to believe that communications could not be completed in over two years and ordered the aviation authority to finalise the report for submission at the case’s next hearing scheduled in the first week of March.
