KARACHI – A private airline, JS Air, has ended its operations with immediate effect and it might be planning to sell its aircraft in the next phase. Sources informed Pakistan Today that JS Air has sustained massive business losses after the crash of its Beech 1900C in November 2010 with their clients refusing to utilise the airline’s services fearing risk to their staff. Among the clients of the airline were British Petroleum (BP), an Italian multinational oil and gas company ENI and BHP Billiton.
JS Air formerly transported the staff of these companies to their areas of operation including Khardan Wari, Bhit Shah amongst other areas. JS Air started its operations roughly three years ago and has three Beech 1900C aircraft, with the crash it is left with just two aircrafts, sources said, adding that the cost of one aircraft of the said model is about $1.5million. The airline used to fly five flights a week, but after the crash of one of its aircraft in which at least 21 people were killed, clients of the airlines have stopped using the service, sources added.
It is to be noted that the JS has more than 30 percent shares in Airblue and that too has suffered a crash last year in which some 153 passengers got killed. Pakistan Today tried to contact the JS Air Chief Executive Officer Rizwan to seek his comments over the closure of the airline, but he was not available for comment.
The air transport department of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is also likely to be privy to any seizure of operations in the case of any airline, but when contacted the Air Transport Director Captain Aftab said that he could not answer this.
On the other hand, the official spokesperson of the CAA said that the investigation of the crash of one aircraft of JS air on November 5, 2010 is still ongoing. Sources in this regard informed that the CAA had failed to observe safety standards with regards to the specific aircraft in question which was flying with an underpowered engine; the aircraft has a total of two engines. It was also being flown with a maximum weight (which must be reduced if one engine is weak), it had topped up on fuel (in this situation the fuel tank is not be completely filled) and it had seated the maximum number of passengers alongside the crew, sources informed. In addition, the authority did not check the load sheet of the said aircraft before taking off, so the negligence by the authority resulted in the loss of 21 precious lives and ultimately the closure of the airline, sources observed.
