‘Probe pilots list’

PAKISTANI pilots and their union, the Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (PALPA), said there are discrepancies in the government’s list of pilots with licences deemed dubious and are demanding a judicial probe.

PIA and private airline Air Blue have queried the list saying 36 of its pilots mentioned had either retired or left the airline, while Air Blue said it no longer employed seven of the nine on the list.

Khan has promised that a restructuring of PIA would be completed by the year end.

On May 22, a PIA flight crashed into houses in Karachi, killing 97 people aboard the plane and a child on the ground. Investigators blamed the pilots, who were chatting about the coronavirus while they attempted to land the Airbus A320 without putting its wheels down.

Until the 1970s, Pakistan’s largest airline was considered a top regional carrier but its reputation plummeted amid chronic mismanagement, frequent cancellations and financial struggles.