The families of the Airblue plane crash victims on Thursday rejected the interim report released by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as ‘it is just a notification having no legal validity in the context of international practices.’ The report is just the notification of the aircraft accident, which should be immediately forwarded after the incident by the state of occurrence to the states of registry; operator; designer; manufacturer; and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) under Standard 4.1 of ICAO Annex 13 (Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation).
Talking with Pakistan Today, Airblue Crash Affectees Group (ACAG) Media Coordinator Haris Lodhi said the families reject the interim report of the investigation as this is just a tactic by the CAA to release the pressure being piled upon the authority. The CAA on Thursday issued an interim report on the completion of one-year of the Airblue plane crash, stating that the plane flew into the Margalla Hills and crashed at a distance of 17.77 km from Islamabad.
The investigations were carried out by the CAA’s Safety Investigation Board president. The report claimed that many aspects of the crash were analysed adequately including internal/external sabotage, incapacitation of aircraft systems, flight fire, bird strike or structural fatigue, human factors, organisational factors. However, no cause/reason/responsibility behind the crash was mentioned.
Speaking with Pakistan Today, aviation lawyer Shah Murad said that as per ICAO recommendations, the state conducting the investigation should release the final report in the shortest possible time – within twelve months of the date of the occurrence, if possible. “If the report cannot be released within twelve months, the state conducting the investigation should release an interim report on each anniversary of the occurrence, detailing the progress of the investigation and any safety issues,” he added.
However, the press release issued by the CAA says nothing about the progress of the investigation and any safety issues involved in Airblue plane crash. “As far as the release of the final report is concerned, the state conducting the investigation shall send a copy of the draft to the state that instituted the investigation and to all states that participated in the investigation, inviting their comments as soon as possible.
“If the state conducting the investigation receives comments within sixty days of the date of the transmitted letter, it shall either amend the draft final report to include the comments received or, if desired by the state that provided comments, append the comments in the final report.
“If the state receives no comments within sixty days of the date of the first letter, it shall issue the final report in accordance with Standard 6.4 of ICAO Annex 13, unless an extension of that period has been agreed by the states concerned,” said Murad.
