Addressing the Pakistani National Assembly, Ghulam Sarwar Khan said that 262 pilots in the country “did not take the exam themselves” and paid for someone else to sit on his behalf.
“There is no flight experience,” he said.
Khan said Pakistan has domestic airlines – including the country’s Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flagship – a series of foreign carriers, as well as 860 active pilots.
PIA immediately enacted all pilots with a fake license.
“The PIA admits that fake licenses are not just a PIA issue, but spread to the entire Pakistan airline industry,” said spokesman Abdullah Khan, adding that some of the fake pilots were flying for foreign airline companies.
Khan did not reveal whether the two pilots on the PK 8303 flight had a fake license.
According to the report, pilots were chatting about the coronavirus and repeatedly ignored warnings from air traffic controllers before the plane landed in a residential area near the airport.
“The pilots were discussing the corona throughout the flight. They didn’t focus. They talked about how the coronavirus and their families were affected.”
According to Khan, pilots were told three times by air traffic controllers that the plane was too high and should not attempt to land, “but the captain did not heed these instructions.”
The pilots proceeded trying to land without dropping the landing gear.
“He touched the runway surface in aircraft engines,” the report said. The engines cleaned the track, causing sparks and irreparable damage.
According to the report, the pilots pulled the plane back into the air, but the damaged engines failed and caused the plane to fall.
Analyst. Amateur problem solver. Wannabe internet expert. Coffee geek. Tv guru. Award-winning communicator. Food nerd.