The pilots of a Pakistan airliner that crashed last month, killing 97, were distracted and preoccupied as they talked about the coronavirus pandemic while preparing for an initial failed landing bid, the country’s aviation minister said on Wednesday.
The Airbus A320 of national carrier Pakistan International Airlines crashed on May 22 in the southern city of Karachi, killing all but two of those aboard as it came down a kilometre (0.6 mile) short of the runway on its second attempt.
The aircraft had landed on its engines on the first attempt, before taking off again, the minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, told parliament as he presented an initial report on the disaster.
The flight data recorder showed the landing gear was lowered at 10 nautical miles, Khan said, but then raised again 5 nautical miles from the runway, which he described as “beyond comprehension”.
The aircraft was “100 percent fit to fly” and there was no technical fault, he said, but added that the pilots were not “focused” because of the pandemic. “The discussion throughout was about corona,” Khan said, referring to exchanges between the pilot and co-pilot he said he had listened to on the voice recorder.
“Corona was dominant over their mind. Their family was affected (by the virus).”
The report, reviewed by Reuters, did not spell out the pilots’ conversation on the virus, but said they did not follow set protocols.
“Several warnings and alerts such as over-speed, landing gear not down and ground proximity alerts, were disregarded,” it added. “The landing was undertaken with landing gear retracted. The aircraft touched the runway surface on its engines.”
Both the pilots and officials at air traffic control did not follow set procedures, Khan said.
“The captain and the co-pilot were experienced and medically fit,” the minister said. Khan added that the data showed flight PK8303 from Lahore was at an altitude of just 2,200m when 16km from the runway.