|

Air Blue Flight 202

Air Blue Flight 202

used

See story

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

Similar Posts

  • | | | | | |

    Air blue Crash Heirs Case Hits Immobile Object

    If you’re wondering about the Airblue 202 case, it has run into the politics of Pakistan. The situation has been piled high with difficulty. Even though I am an optimist and see opportunity in every difficulty, even though I have a great team of attorneys in Pakistan, and a great team here in the states coordinating on this case, there comes a time when we must realize where we stand. Despite our efforts, with the present laws and political situation, helping the families is like patching shattered glass with paste. It has been a very difficult to make things stick. Or to change metaphors, it has been an uphill climb.

    The Flight: 28 July 2010, Airbus A321, Air Blue Fight 202, en route from Karachi to Islamabad

    146 passengers and 6 crew members flew into a mountain near the airport. Witnesses wondered why it seemed as if “the plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down.”

    Why it was flying so low? Why did it strike the mountain? Audio and a report were released that seemed to answer those question—lack of coordination in the flight crew.

    Our study of the audio indicates the pilots are served tea early on, then…

    • Confusion ensues in the cockpit, caused by some unknown reason.
    • Wrong settings introduced into the settings that were already abnormal.
    • A tower operator who had gone for coffee was complacent.
    • Aircraft flew lower than normal.
    • Abnormal personality traits/interaction reflecting mistakes in the cockpit.
    • Weather and apprehension and strange out of norm complacency by the FO when he realizes they are going to die

    When the audio was released and studied, it became clear there was no teamwork between the pilot Perve Iqbal Chaudhary and the first officer Muntajib Ahmed.

    The pilot had 35 years and more than 25,000 hours of flying experience but made inexplicable mistakes and demeaned the co-pilot. The first officer was aware of the danger and tried to amend the situation but he had been so disheartened beforehand by sharp questions putting the first officer “in his place.”

    He was unaccountably meek for a former F-16 Pakistan Air Force fighter pilot. The pilot did not properly respond to Air Traffic Control directives and automated cabin warning systems and flew the plane into a mountain. Air Traffic Control responses were less than professional. The first officer appeared helpless and ineffective.

    On January 17,2013, two and a half years after the accident, the Peshawar High Court closed proceedings for the Airblue compensation case.

    Counsel was directed to withdraw the client’s petition from the Islamabad High Court or the the Peshawar High Court. The client refused to do so on the basis that the cases were different. The court closed the case because the heirs of the victims had had filed an independent lawsuit at Islamabad High Court.

    We believed the Airblue compensation case had merit. The pilot committed the error. The first officer was ineffective. They were Airblue employees.

    Yes, there was pilot error, but the airline is doubly responsible, because the flight crew did not have adequate CRM training. (COCKPIT Resource Management/Crew Resource Management) Absolutely what happened in the case was the result of the airline failing to establish a working protocol.

    It’s like children at school practicing a fire drill so they know what to do when a crisis occurs. Fire drills save lives. They prevent missteps in the face of danger. They give the people in trouble a set of directions to follow that will get them out of the jam they are in. A drill answers questions ahead of time, so precious time is not wasted figuring out what to do. Without the drill, what happens when disaster strikes? Chaos. Loss of life.

    I feel bad for the people. First they lose their families. Then they don’t get all the compensation available to them.

    Take a look at the safety recommendations from the report (pasted below).

    See how 3.1-3.5 and 3.7 all duplicate the same working environment issue? Investigators recognize the troubled working environment. Today’s flight crews are taught CRM which means they have safe practices in place in case the captain is incapacitated and starts to fly into mountains like the captain of Air Blue 202.

    But realistically, will recommendations change AirBlue? Will Air Blue be able to implement non-traditional interpersonal relations on the job? And if they can not, how will they ever fly safely with a first officer culturally unable to do his job?

    The first officer was ineffective in securing the plane; and sadly, the court appears to be equally as ineffective in getting justice for some of the heirs of the victims.

    Re: Investigation Report -AB-202 CHAPTER – 13 :

    SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS

    13.1 All aircrew be re-briefed on CFIT avoidance and Circling Approach procedures
    and a strict implementation of this procedure be ensured through an intensive
    monitoring system.

    13.2 Aircrew scheduling and pairing being a critical subject be preferably handled /
    supervised by Flight Operations.

    13.3 The implementation of an effective CRM program be ensured and the syllabus of
    CRM training be reviewed in line with international standards.

    13.4 Existing aircrew training methodology be catered for standardization and
    harmonization of procedures.

    13.5 Human factor / personality profiling program for aircrew be introduced to predict
    their behaviour under crises.

    13.6 Instrument landing procedure for RWY-12 be established, if possible.

    13.7 Safety Management System be implemented in ATS as per the spirit of the ICAO
    document (doc. 4444).

    13.8 New Islamabad International Airport (NIIA) be completed and made functional on
    priority

    13.9 Visual augment system (Approach Radar Scope) be installed in control tower to
    monitor the positions and progress of aircraft flying in the circuit.

    13.10 Review of the existing Regulations for the compensation and their expeditious
    award to the legal heirs of the victims be ensured.

    13.11 Adequacy of SIB resources comprising qualified human resource and equipment
    be reviewed.

    13.12 Information to public on the progress of the investigation process through the
    media by trained / qualified investigators of SIB be ensured on regular intervals.

    13.13 NDMA be tasked to acquire in-country airlift capability for removal of wreckage
    from difficult terrain like Margalla etc. As an interim arrangement, some foreign
    sources be earmarked for making such an arrangements on as and when
    required basis.

    13.14 Civil Police Department be tasked to work out and ensure effective cordoning and
    onsite security arrangements of crashed aircraft wreckage at all the places
    specially remote / difficult hilly locations.

    13.15 Environment Control Department be directed to recover the ill effects of
    deterioration / damages caused to Marghalla hill due to the crash.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • |

    Air Blue Flight 202 -Don’t forget the Families


    Some people woke today and remembered 152 passengers who crashed into a hillside in Pakistan. The plane was flown by Airblue and it was the last ride those 152 people would ever remember. For the last ten months, every morning the families wake and remember someone on that plane who is no longer here. Even though as of July 28, it will have been a year since the crash, to their families, time doesn’t matter so much. Justice does.

    On July 28, Airbus sent out a press release regrettably confirming their year 2000 model Airbus A321 operated by Airblue operating a scheduled service, Flight ED 202, from Karachi to Islamabad crashed, killing all aboard. Airbus promised to provide full technical assistance to Pakistani authorities. Thanks for the concern and sympathy, but ask the families, where is their assistance?

    We have not heard anything about Pilot Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry who was 61 years old, and suffering from diabetes and hypertension. Was he suffering fatigue if he had observed prayers of the holy day preceding the crash? We don’t know. His flight schedule has not been released.

    The black box, was found July 31 of last year, and sent to the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la Sécurité de l’Aviation Civile, but the BEA (whose involvement is one of “observer” under 1944 Chicago Annex 13) has no page up for the crash. Ask the families, where is their assistance?

    The NTSB (also observer) only has this statement: The investigation is being conducted by the Pakistan Safety & Investigation Board, Civil Aviation Authority. The NTSB appointed an Accredited Representative to assist the investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13 as the Country of Manufacture and Design of the engines. Ask the families, where is their assistance?

    The ball is in Pakistani court.

    The Pakistani government announced compensation of Rs 500,000 ($5,847) to each family. (Pakistan is signatory to Hague Protocol and Montreal Convention of 1999, under which compensation could be as much as Rs12 million per victim.) The pending Carriage by Air Act 2010 offers minimum compensation of Rs500,000 for death and injury of domestic flight passengers. Airblue has replaced the plane and business is booming.

    But not the families of the 152 victims. We still don’t know why it happened. We haven’t heard about families getting compensation. If this were an international flight, there would be an active treaty (Montreal Convention) outlining the guidelines. But in this domestic flight, the families still hanging in the wind, waiting for a report, and waiting for compensation. We know that to get adequate compensation, the families will have to fight it out in court. If you ask the families where their assistance is, they will tell you that there has been none. Should they have to petition the court for the most fundamental victim’s right—just to find out why the airline they trusted with their loved ones lives, the plane they trusted with their loved ones—crashed?

    Link to our initial study, Airblue 202-­?Pre-­?Theory and Testing Hypothesis

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | |

    Airblue 202 A Year Later


    India’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued a statement which they are calling an interim report. It is not what we would call an interim report, but appears to be a report that there is a report that restates the facts as they were known already, not containing actual investigation output. The media has already highlighted the findings of the interim report several times. The report notes that the investigation covered system issues, fire, bird strikes, etc but does not mention causes or place responsibility, and promises a release when component manufacturers have responded.

    So basically, the families have waited a year for the Air Blue Interim report, on the July 28 flight from Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport to Benazir Bhutto International Airport and still have no satisfactory answers.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | | |

    AirBlue in Defiance of Court

    Although the court has ordered compensation, a spokesman of victims told the Peshawar High Court that “AirBlue has communicated to petitioners that compensation will be given to them once they step down and cases are withdrawn from court.” AirBlue also asked for a “universal relief agreement” release form for the 152 companies potentially responsible banning victims from suing.

    The chief justice advised the victims rep to file an application of contempt of court, and promised to continue the case until every heir is compensated.

    In George’s Point of View


    AirBlue should be taking the high road on this, and stop dragging their feet. The tragedy brought to a halt the lives of too many, robbed families of their futures. How can any of these families affected ever have any peace? Why—after already causing the ultimate harm to the victims, and the families of victims—must the airline do everything in their power to make the situation even worse?

    From the moment we are infants who learn to trust our feet to carry us, standing at the sides of our cribs, toddling across our parent’s floors into schools, and adulthood and life beyond, we are only able to stand on our own feet, to walk on our own feet, to negotiate the ground beneath us because we learn a sense of control. We know where the ground is, which way is up. We learn where we can place our feet just so, how to move, to balance, and how to negotiate the rules and laws and physics of the real world so that we can take the next step in our lives, and the next, and the next. All of this occurs because we learn to trust our environment, to trust ourselves in it.

    A tragic event like a plane crash turns our perceptions, our world, our lives inside out. It turns the ground to the ceiling. Our perception of reality is instantly distorted, turning peace and family into an ongoing horror. How can we take the next step when the ground beneath us has been stolen away?

    A tragedy like this shocks everyone–not just the families, but everyone who learns of the event–we are all left with the sense of being a boat unmoored, with the knowledge of a loss of control of the setting and circumstance of our lives. Everyone who learns of a crash like that of Air Blue faces a realization of the frailty of life. The word “shock” is appropriate, for the sensation is not unlike a zap of electricity that sizzles our nerve endings. For those of us who did not lose anyone, we may have an instant jolt, an instant awareness an instant empathy of the depth of grief, horror, pain suffered by survivors; but for survivors that jolt is no instant. It stretches on indefinitely into a future rendered bleak and dead.

    Healing may come; a sense of life may return, or even a sense of carpe diem. But even with healing, there is a loss of innocence, a loss of trust in life, in belief of “the future” because, after all, how grim the future is without our loved ones in it.

    For the families, reparation can never be made. How can they truly be “repaired” if the loved ones they lost can never be returned? The sense of the wholeness of their lives is forever a shattered glass. It is the responsibility for Jet Blue (and even for any of the 152 companies who are indeed partially responsible) to deliver promise instead of excuse, blessing instead of denial, empowerment instead of refusal, expedition instead of delay.

    There is a lot of guilt and responsibility sitting squarely in the lap of Air Blue.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | |

    The Peshawar High Court Demands Air Blue Inquiry

    An independent board of inquiry for determining the causes of the crash was petitioned by politician Marvi Memon.

    Interior Minister Rehman Malik gave a two month timeframe for the release of the Air Blue report. It still has not been released due to “political pressure.”

    The families have persistent unanswered questions regarding the Air Blue crash in the Margalla Hills in Islamabad. One hundred fifty two people died in that crash in July 2010. As of Thursday, the PHC expects the written submissions (complete statements) from all respondents on the next court date.

    Counsel Omar Farouk Adam requested that the Air Blue Fleet be grounded until the report is made public. According to Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, relief for the victims families must be “fixed” in the inquiry prior to the court ordering interim relief.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | | |

    Air Blue Report: Where Are You?

    Do we know more than we did before the investigations? No, we do not. Because after almost 9 months, we still haven’t heard the official investigation of the Air Blue Airbus that crashed in Margalla Hills on July 28, 2010. And this is not one of those cases where the blackboxes disappeared. The black boxes on this flight were located and sent to France for processing.


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Richard Vandervord

    What: AirBlue Airbus A321-200 en route from Karachi to Islamabad Pakistan
    Where: Margalla Hills about 10nm north of Islamabad
    When: Jul 28th 2010
    Who: 146 passengers and 6 crew
    Why: While on approach to Islamabad in poor weather conditions during monsoon rain and low visibility, radio contact was lost (at 09:45) and the plane impacted the terrain.

    Helicopters flew into the mountainous area, which is difficult to access. Initial reports were that there were no survivors then helicopters were reported to have flown five survivors to hospitals. Six bodies have been recovered including the pilot but there are no survivors (in spite of the video report.)

    Scheduled 14 CFR Non-U.S., Commercial operation of Airblue
    Accident occurred Wednesday, July 28, 2010 in Islamabad, Pakistan
    Aircraft: AIRBUS A321, registration: AP-BCB
    Injuries: 157 Fatal.
    On July 28, 2010, Airblue flight 202, an Airbus A321 with IAE V2500 engines, registration AP-BCB, impacted terrain in the Margilla Hills during approach to runway 12 at Benazir Bhutto International Airport (OPRN), Islamabad, Pakistan. All 150 passengers and 7 crewmembers onboard were fatally injured and the airplane was destroyed. The flight was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan (OPKC) to OPRN.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.