Carrier

  • Obtaining interesting progressive and unprecedented rulings from the Peshwar High Court;
  • Obtaining from the Government and Parliament, with the input of the Air Blue 202 families, a new progressive new Air Law;
  • “Lessons Learned” from past experiences;
  • 118 victims in BOJAH B4-123 were positively identified within 24 hours (in the fastest proceedings of other tragedies substantial ID took 4 days in Comair 191 (Lexington, KY);
  • The first 18 burials took place within 24 hours (Saturday);
  • 35 more burials and services could be conducted on Sunday;
  • The Government mandated the inspection of all commercial planes with the exception of PIA that had already been inspected previously.

    I can not emphasize too much how important the Family Association can be. A strong Family Association meets regularly and develops strategies to make sure that their voice is heard. They have a forum to express valid criticisms of flying conditions, the investigation, or other concerns that may develop. What is more important is that sometimes they have the strength to affect change to avoid future tragedies—as they are working to do in Pakistan. And when one Family Association has successes, it can be “catching”.

    In a recent case in Brazil, the Family Association pressured not only the airline company but the military, federal aviation department, and the airport commission all of whom were suspected to have contributed to the accident. The association pushed for criminal prosecution of those who were negligent, as well as against those who allowed wrongdoing to occur. And they didn’t stop there. Leaders like the secretary of Associação Brasileira de Parentes e Amigos das Vítimas de Acidentes Aéreo Christophe Haddad—who lost his fourteen year old daughter to the Tam crash—lend their experience and passion for justice—to other families struck down by tragedy. As Christophe recently told me “Again and again we see the same picture. Pain, sorrow, tragedy, families broken…Hard to comment about but here we are again.”

    With help from men like Christophe Haddad and Hans Ephraimson-ABT, the Air Blue Family Association is developing its own teachers, leaders, and power of influence. In Pakistan, we look forward to when the Air Blue Family Association may become equally as instrumental a force for change in Pakistan as the Brazil group is in Brazil. There is power in right. There is strength in numbers.

    Since 1985, Hans Ephraimson-ABT has been the Chairman of “The American Association for Families of KAL007 Victims.” Since 2000 he has been the spokesman for the “Air Crash Victims Families Group” and is also an invited observer delegate at the “International Civil Aviation Organization.” His group is a model for other groups, and he is a frequent spokesman. He has stakeholder status at the European Union. During the past 26 years, he has participated and served in various capacities in workgroups at the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, two Presidential Commissions, the Task Force that implemented the “Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996” and subsequently the ICAO “Guide on Assistance to Aircraft Accident Victims and their Families” of 2001. He has been invited to testify before Committees of the US Senate and the House of Representatives. He was one of the original members of the air carrier focus groups that developed and subsequently implemented post-crash crisis management plans in the United States. Since 1996, he has been asked to assist airlines and governments with the resolution of air transportation tragedies, including the “September 11, 2001 Victims Compensation Fund” and as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the “Families of September 11th Association.” He is often invited to participate and speak at international conferences and he is a published author. He is not a disinterested observer in the fight for aviation safety. He is a survivor. In 1983, his daughter Alice Ephraimson-Abt was aboard Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by a Soviet pilot.

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    Bhoja Detained; Released; Controlled

    The Arshad Jalil family owns 80% of Bhoja Air. Farooq Bhoja who owns a small percentage of Bhoja Air was detained and questioned after the crash of the Bhoja Air jet Friday. Now Bhoja is on the “control list” forbidden to leave Pakistan. A criminal investigation has been launched, as well as an aviation investigation, and a judicial commission.

    Nadeem Yousufzai of the Civil Aviation Authority denied that political pressure was behind the Bhoja Air’s permit.

    I am just wondering when they arrest the owner of Air Blue, the CAA and the DGCA.

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    Cityhopper Hops Back to Amsterdam Minus One Engine


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer John Gregory

    What: KLM Embraer ERJ-190 en route from Amsterdam to Birmingham
    Where: Amsterdam
    When: Apr 21st 2012
    Why: While en route, a leak in the right engine was detected. Pilots shut down the affected engine and returned to Amsterdam where they made a safe landing.

    KLM Cityhopper received delivery of the plane on April 1 2010. It has CF34-10E6 engines. (GE)

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    Gear Struts Pierce Wing on 19 Year old Boeing

    What: Shaheen Air International Boeing 737-400 en route from Islamabad to Karachi
    Where: Karachi
    When: Apr 22nd 2012
    Who: 122 passengers and 6 crew
    Why: On landing in Karachi, the main gear failed, and the gear perforated the wing.

    Passengers disembarked on to the runway. No injuries were reported.

    If we were to speculate (which we shouldn’t do) we would say this could be either due to a hard or fast landing and/or a mechanical failure.

    The first flight of this Boeing 737-4H6 was Sept 21, 1993. On October 28 1993, the plane was delivered to Malaysia Airlines as 9M-MQC. It was stored 09/2011 as N829AR (Bank of Utah) and delivered to Shaheen Air on January 21, 2012.

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    Helicopter crashes into houses in Antigua, 4 Injured


    What: Bell 206L helicopter
    Where: Antigua, Guatemala
    When: April 15, 2012
    Who: Four injured
    Why: A helicopter flying over Antigua for aerial photography crashed into two houses at 9:30 in the morning.

    No residents were at home at the time of the crash. Three Guatemalans and one American were injured in the crash. The American broke his tibia and fibula. The injured were taken to National Hospital. The American was identified only as Michael; the others were Juan Carlos Menendez, 40, Andres Turcios, 32, and Octavio Gordillo, 52.

    The helicopter was broken in two by the impact. The translation of an unverified newspaper report said that the pilot had been flying low when a bird hit the rotors.

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    Small Plane Crashes into Guatamalan Zoo, 3 fatalities, Zookeeper Burned


    What: Piper PA-23-250 Aztec for sightseeing tour of city
    Where: Aurora Zoo, Guatemala City
    When: April 21, 2012
    Who: 3 fatalities
    Why: The Piper took off from La Aurora International Airport and crashed into the Aurora Zoo beside the Esquilandia playground. The pilot of the aircraft, Alex Quezada, 35, Oscar Calderon, 22, who was the co-pilot, and Christian Werner, 20 were killed in the crash. One employee of the zoo, Carlos Aspuac, was hospitalized at Roosevelt Hospital with second and third degree burns. Hundreds of visitors were evacuated from the zoo.

    The DAC says the plane was having mechanical problems. Witnesses report seeing the plane “rocking” and emitting black smoke, before it crashed.

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    Bhoja Air Flight 213

    In George’s Point of View


    It pains me to write this. I had just put down my pen from writing about an engine failure where the flight made it safely back to the airport, and heard the news of this. Bhoja Air Flight 213 down in Pakistan after losing contact with ATC. Another flight down in stormy weather. The loss is unique, but it has happened too many times.

    Again a plane, or pilot, or airline failed to bring its passengers safely home. That’s all we want—for the families to be reunited, for the father who just lost his daughters to have them back, for this to be a nightmare that will just go away. But the Bhoja crash is one of the nightmares that doesn’t go away.

    Soon the whole world will hear the names, see the faces, hear the stories behind the tragedy. Maybe it is the stories that make a disaster like this so hard to take for the rest of us. The stories bring life to the loss, take our imaginations from black and white to living color, carry us from the place where statistics rest on paper to where they mingle in our hearts with our own memories of love and loss. Soon we will hear the mourning of the families, the fathers, mothers, siblings, spouses, friends. The investigation will begin, and the experts will find whatever they find, but there’s always the one truth that remains.

    It is the families who will bear this, who will hereafter live their lives like shattered china pieced back together. And what is the glue? The chemistry will be different for every parent, every child, every sibling, but its ingredients are memories woven with grief and resilience, bitterness, hope, faith—and the support of friends. You will get through this. You already know that time will ease the pain, but for now, true as it is, it is only words. To the families, we can only say we grieve with you. Your loss is our loss.

    It is as true now as it was in 1624 when John Donne wrote it. “No man is an island…All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language…” Your loss is our loss. To the families, we can only say we grieve with you and wish you peace.

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    No Survivors in Bhoja Inaugural Karachi to Islamabad Flight Disaster

    Update: The investigation team formed to probe into Friday’s plane crash on Monday (April 23) visited the site and collected evidence.

    What: Bhoja Air Boeing 737-200 en route from Karachi to Islamabad
    Where: Islamabad
    When: Apr 20th 2012
    Who: 121 passengers and 6 crew
    Why: The plane (reported as #AP-BKC a 27 year old Boeing) took off from Karachi, impacted the ground 3-6 miles from Islamabad while on approach and burst into flames in a rural location(Hussain Abad village) near Chaklala Air Base. No survivors were found, and ten houses on the ground were affected. The plane lost contact with the control tower minutes before landing. There was no distress call. There are conflicting reports that the plane was on fire and was not on fire before it impacted the ground. Some reports say the plane was struck by lightning. There was a thunderstorm at the time of the accident. The fire/fireball after the crash does not appear to have engulfed the entire debris area, according to photos of the scene.


    Debris from the crash is said to cover a large muddy area. The area has not been cordoned off; reporters and others are swarming over the crash site.

    This is reported to be the first Bhorja flight on this route. The jet left at 17:00 and was due to arrive at 18:50.

    The flight data recorder has been recovered along with 110 bodies (so far.)

    The number of people listed as passengers varies from 127 to 130 aboard.

    The METAR
    OPRN 201400Z 23020KT 3000 TSRA FEW025CB SCT030 BKN100 20/16 Q1011.0/29.85
    OPRN 201300Z 23020KT 4000 TS FEW025CB SCT030 BKN100 25/15 Q1009.3/29.80

    Trans:
    METAR for Benazir Bhutto International Airport, issued on the 20th of the month at 13:00 Zulu Time. Wind from 230° at 20 knots (37 km/h). Visibility 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), thunderstorms in area. Clouds few at 2,500 feet (760 m), cumulonimbus clouds present. Broken clouds at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). Temperature 25°C, dewpoint 15°C. Altimeter setting 1009.3 hPA / 29.80 inHg


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    Delta Bird Strike Emergency Landing at JFK


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Alex Khan

    What: Delta Airlines Boeing 757-200 en route from New York to Los Angeles,CA
    Where: New York
    When: Apr 19th 2012
    Who: 172 passengers and 7 crew
    Why: After taking off from JFK, the plane had a bird strike. A bird was ingested by a right engine, which caused an engine failure. Pilots informed ATC.

    Passengers feared the worst as they saw the birds, heard the impact and smelled the smoke, but the cool headed pilot was able to make a visual landing while flying on one engine.

    Matthew Kroll, told reporters”We were taking off and two seconds off the ground, the whole plane shutters and you hear this low growl. Then you smell the smoke in the cabin. People were relatively calm because it happened about three second after take-off. Everyone saw what happened and you could smell it. It was more dead bird than smoke. The pilot came out and said we have to circle back. It took about four minutes and we were back on the runway.”

    The bird strike was taped by a passenger and has been incorporated into the reports below:

    video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

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    Lufthansa Diverts to UFA, Passengers Wait and Wait


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Je89 W.

    What: Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 en route from Shanghai to Frankfurt
    Where: Ufa
    When: Apr 18th 2012
    Who: 311 passengers
    Why: While en route, the cabin developed smoke which was reported as an unusual odor. Pilots diverted to UFA and made a safe landing. No fire was found. There’s no indication of how Lufthansa is handling passengers, baggage or compensation for inconvenience, but we hear passengers were in for a long wait.

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    Virgin Australia Fuel Imbalance Lands Team in Brisbane


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

    What: Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 en route from Coolangatta/Gold Coast,QL to Melbourne,VI
    Where: Coolangatta
    When: Apr 15th 2012
    Who: Essendon Football Team
    Why: The flight was en route when a problem developed with the fuel. Pilots diverted to Brisbane and made a safe landing. Emergency services met the plane on the tarmac. Virgin’s public statement said the problem was a minor maintenance issue.

    The football team won against the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday night but ended up stranded in Brisbane. The spokesman for Essedon said “There was definitely no emergency. It’s probably been overplayed a bit.”

    The flight was cancelled.

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    Malaysia Airlines Engine Fails over Kuala Lumur


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Charles Polidano

    What: Malaysia Airlines Boeing 747-400 en route from Kuala Lumpur to London
    Where: Kuala Lumpur
    When: Apr 17th 2012
    Who: 351 passengers, 21 crew
    Why: After taking off from Kuala Lumpur, the engine exploded.

    Or at least that’s what passengers felt when they heard a backfire or some other kind of explosion from one engine, and saw sparks and flames.

    Pilots dumped fuel and returned to Kuala Lumpur where they made a safe landing.

    A replacement jet was provided.