Bhoja Air plane crash: What do you know?

Bhoja Air plane crash: What do you know?

A passenger airplane belonging to Bhoja Air has crashed near Chaklala Air Force Base in Rawalpindi. At least 127 people are feared dead as a result of the crash, according to the Ministry of Defence.

Were you at or close to the site of the accident?

Do you have any details regarding the plane crash?

Dawn.com requests its readers to share any information regarding the tragic accident that they may have.

 

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135 Responses to “Bhoja Air plane crash: What do you know?”

  1. Pakistani says:

    I watched the live report on CNN.They covered the tragedy in a methodical manner and sequence that included comments from an Air Investigator and the CNN weather expert.That report should help the Inquiry Commission as it is the closest to perhaps what actually happened or did not happen.

  2. mohsin says:

    737-200 is a 25-30 year old plane and has been banned in many countries in early 2000’s.
    Reason ; To many accidents and plane crashes due to the age of aircraft. The structure is too old 80% of all crashes have reports of plane breaking up in two , Plane stalling suddenly in bad weather due to speed decrease while landing, and few others reasons such as engine catching fire while initiating reverse thrusters to reduce speed while landing. You will find such alot of examples on google for this history of this aircraft.

    It took 7 fokers to crash for PIA to decide to retire this fleet of aircraft and I am afraid that it will take many more 737-200 crashes for our authorities to decide to retire this fleet. This is a simple law of probability; you are at way great risk of flying in these birds especially in bad weather. Shaheen and airblue has still some of these aircrafts in service.

    Bottom Line : These planes are not air worthy and instead of arresting the CEO of airlines.. they should Arrest people in Civil aviation industry who should not let these non air worthy planes in its skies. I was a U.S pilot and FAA would never clear such aircraft to operate.

  3. Major (R) Saifullah Samo says:

    It is a tragic incident, one can realise the gravity of the incident if we share the grief of those who lost their love ones. I hold the government responsible for this and other two air accidents of private air line which escaped similar fate in Lahore and Karachi. Government has lost its control over all affairs of the state, every institution appears to be on its own. Corruption, nepotism, violation of the merit is order of the day. Justice and accountability is no where to be seen. If this is how the country is to be run i am afraid we are going to see much more dreadful incidents in the days ahead. May GOD Almighty have mercy on this Pakistani nation

  4. Shams says:

    It might be fuel tank fire If plane was burst into flames in the air. Same kind of accident occured in USA couple of years ago and intense investigation revealed fire in fuel tank.

  5. QAZINAZIMNAEEM says:

    Air crash: a national tragedy of national character.
    My heart is bleeding with entire nation, especially with those who died in the recent air crash of Boja Air line and in the Air Blue crash that took place almost two years ago. It is extremely unfortunate to hear this news, especially if one is out of country. I was shocked and saddened to know this horrified news in University of Texas, Austin when an old lady in the International conference approached me sharing her condolence with me as a Pakistani.
    Consequently she and I engaged in a conversation of the air crash incidents and we discussed the prima facie reasons of increasing number of these air crash accidents, which have not counted as national tragedies, but make the entire national a psychologically depressed and scared to fly.
    I still remember the agony and mental trauma on June 28, 2012 when our Islamabad Karachi bound flight had suffered severe jolts and people screamed in airline for three to four times at some stage due to bad weather and turbulent flight, though we had been waiting for almost six hours at Islamabad airport, but luckily survived the adversity by Allah’s will
    Being a well traveled person in fifteen different US states I share my personal flying experience of five different airlines including small and large aircrafts. In USA, no flight is allowed to fly, if the weather does not suit, especially, if the flight is to be landed or flown from windy city Chicago. The aviation staff is extremely efficient to guide the captain about the landing routes with the help of most modern sophisticated technology. During the travel smooth take off and relaxed landing of the air craft is a usual aspect where people seem quite relaxed and well trusted in the air crafts.
    On the contrary, what boggles me the situations seen or felt in our national airlines is simply dreadful. I am of the view that such increasing numbers of heart rendering human loss causalities are not only caused by bad weather, but solely because of most horrible and rickety condition of the national aircrafts and lack of professionalism in Pakistan. Due to massive corruption, nepotism, favoritism in our national institutions has shackle the back bone of our nation.
    Fitness certificates are achieved by using contacts or influences. Such increasing tragic disasters have badly affected the psyche of the nation and make them severely deflated during the air travel. Our nation can only come out of these sort of national crisis by electing educated and sincere leaders for them, who hate to kill meritocracy and present themselves for accountability at all level and for that the right choice is to elect a man of high caliber and integrity, who currently is Imran Khan, the last hope of drowning nation.

    Austin, TX

  6. Masoodul says:

    Based on newsmedia coverage here are some of my “speculations”.

    * No mid-air explosion. The runway was in sight, pilots said that to control tower. Landing gear was down.
    * Likely a microburst happened above the plane just after the last communication with control tower.
    * Pilot lost altitude and tried to regain it by increasing power, however egines didn’t respond in time.
    * The plane loses lift and stalls and falls out of sky.
    * It hit the ground just before the hill where the tire marks are, ran into the uphill embankment, where the right wing was sheared off
    * This impact disintegrated the airplane and created the G forces which killed everyone on board.
    * Debris flew into air and started raining onto the neighbourhood.
    * At this point the fuel from the broken wings mixed with still running engines and small fires happened howerver neither of the wings show signs of esplosion, just sign of fire.

    I’m not sure why the initial report is saying the plane “exploded” after trying to increase power to engines. It just does not happen.

    What could have happened is that as result of loss of altitude, stall conditions and pilots trying to apply more power and extra control inputs, the planes old control systems could have broken up and caused a loss of control which the copilot reported in the last fateful minutes.

    Guys, one thing seems to be certain, the pilots were fighting till the last moment, my heartfelt condolances to all Pakistani people. you have seen more than your share of unfortunate events recently.

    My gut feeling is that the planes air-frame could not take the stresses brought on by control inputs which were result of the plane losing altituded due to microbust. Pilots may have tried their best, but even new planes cannot easily come out of microburst related loss of altitude. The airframe of this plane had been written off (this is on an international website please search for it)

    It may have been flight worthy in excellent conditions, but the fate was against it and the passengers/crew on that day.

  7. GJC says:

    My deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved-ones. There shall never be replacements for those gone. All that is left is tears. And all we can do is try to comfort those in grief. May Allah grant them the ability to cope with these circumstances.

    Now the accident. Whether lightning struck the plane or not, the fault still lies with those responsible for the flight. That means the Airline officials, the Airport authorities, and, most important, the Pakistani government. Why did Bhuja operate an aircraft nearly 27 years old? Why did Islamabad airport authorities let the aircraft proceed to land in such bad weather? And why does the Pakistan government not devise and implement aviation rules and regulations that would ensure safety of passengers?

    Let it not be said that it was will of Allah; that is the worst cop out that we Muslims routinely engage in. It is pathetic. Take responsibility, take charge, a sort of tie down your camel first and then pray approach. Quit blaming things on the Creator that are rightfully the result of your own faults and incompetence.

    Bhuja Air should be defunct now. Take their assets and distribute them among the families in grief. Remove incompetent, irresponsible officials from the airports and CAA. End of argument.

  8. Tinker Smile says:

    Airplanes are well equiped with multiple intruments, if there is any problem with the equipment pilot will relay that to the air controller immediatly.

    Three situations when combined together cause most of the airline accidents
    1. Bad weather suddent gust of wind or air pocket airplan cant fly smooth.
    2. Poor Visibility disorient the pilot.
    3. Pilot Error not instrument errors.

    Lesson learned here is never try land in bad weather. Go to other safe ariport for landing.

  9. Tariq Kamal - Houston says:

    Pakistani’s are very judgmental people. We need to wait for the CAA investigation in to the crash. CAA is a relevant authority that is capable of investigating the accident. They will look at all factors that could contribute to the crash; weather, aircraft condition, pilot training, human error, weather instrument warning, maintenance record and many other factors. Drawing room investigation, pre-judgement and incarceration of people is little premature and irresponsible.

  10. Mahir Chaudhry FAA Dispatch says:

    Another down in such a short span of time same Airport Same Approach Controller What a coincidence.
    I believe the Captain was had tone of hours on B-737 as he was flying Saheen Airlines. The ISB Radar Approach handed the Aircraft to Tower at about 8 Nautical Miles at an altitude of 3,900ft.
    At 3.9 Nautical miles Aircraft disappeared from Radar screen at an altitude of 1800ft.There was some typical weather around that build up instantly and then rains. This weather is associated with sudden change of wind direction and speed(the Aircraft is likely to loose altidute Microbursts could be another reason
    A microburst is a small, very intense downdraft that descends to the ground resulting in a strong wind divergence. The size of the event is typically less than 4 kilometers across. Microburst’s are capable of producing winds of more than 100 mph causing significant damage. The life span of a microburst is around 5-15 minutes.
    When rain falls below cloud base or is mixed with dry air, it begins to evaporate and this evaporation process cools the air. The cool air descends and accelerates as it approaches the ground. When the cool air approaches the ground, it spreads out in all directions and this divergence of the wind is the signature of the microburst. In humid climates, microburst’s can also generate from heavy precipitation.
    Shocked why owner has been but on Exit Control list or Certification of Airline was done in Mr. .Nawaz Sharif era.

  11. Kausar A Jafri says:

    The Government of Pakistan has promptly announced setting up a judicial commissiom headed by a retired Judge of the Supreme court to investigate the crash . I wonder what qualification the retired judge possess to investigate this accident . The Safety Investigation Board ( SIB) of Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan is the only competent department to investigate such accidents . I believe stting up a judicial inquir y for such accidents is mere a waste of public money and time.

  12. Hameed Farahshah says:

    Thare is a lack of sensitivity in Pakistan regarding job related duties.

  13. Asif says:

    I do think any of the passenger families will be compensated.

  14. Sir Pompus says:

    First of all My condolence to all the families, we share your grief. Secondly, I traveled from karachi to lahore on Bhoja last week and i can tell you upon landing on lahore it was bad weather and the most horrific turbulence that I have ever experienced and everyone on board thought pilot will loose control. Plane was rocking up and down and sideways violently. Old folks started to pray loudly and young ones were almost screaming. Problem is that older planes are airworthy but they lack modern radars and electronic equipment which warns of bad weather and wind shear ahead. And i am sure Bhoja captain has no choice but to land the craft as it probably doesn’t have extra fuel to go around the storm. Our airports lack weather radar warning system as well.

  15. AA says:

    Intelligence of Rahman Malik is one that you have to wonder about. He loves to change the subject when he is under the hot seat.
    I am not defending Sharif but Bhoja restarted operating under current PPP government, so adequacy of who found them financially sound after many years of no operation falls onto current government.
    In a country like Pakistan, license are granted by paying a fee and once after the license is issued, business then really works on a business plan. Bhoja was stopped from operating by creditor due to financial difficulties due to non payment of fuel bills to PSO and landing fees to CAA. The airline then went back into defunct status after suspension.
    So Rahman Malik, as the interior minister, would you please explain how Bhoja was allowed to operate when the already marked as defunct company

  16. A.Bajwa says:

    One way out is to open domestic routes to Gulf Airlines.

    Pakistan should also allow airlines from Ashgabat and Baku to fly to Karachi. That will enable passengers to fly to Europe on cheaper fares. Being oil rich countries these airlines have fairly modern fleets.

  17. pilot says:

    There are thousands of reasons for a plan crash but not necessarily due material failure. 80 % are due to human error and avoidable. One can imagine the financial state of the airline, and number of possible reasons. Landing and take offs are the states of the aircraft when it is most vulnerable. We can only pray for the departed souls and for the managers of airlines that may allah give them wisdom.

  18. waleed says:

    hi,
    i’ve seen that air crash(BHOJA AIRLINES) . i was enjoying the rain and suddenly i saw that clouds became yellowish orange for a while and after that there was fire in air and i was able to see that fire from a lot of distance .IT WAS VERY HORRIBLE. the intensity of fire/light was too much that it was looking like sun is rising again for a while and then fire vanished. then i came down and after some time i came too know that it was bhoja airline. as i was not sure before that whether it was an air crash or some thing else. but know i am sure that i’ve seen that crash.

  19. Amanullah khoso says:

    if u come on natrully thing then all people times came for die. but if u come on techanically point then i think its a failure of radaaar system and bad decision of pilot.

  20. Jehanzeb Khan says:

    Last november I was coming in (PIA) an Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Islamabad flight. After an hour of take off from Frankfurt, the captain came out of the cockpit and sat with the newly recruited airhostesses. You would not believe that in this 6 hour flight, he was chatting with them the whole flight and went back to cockpit just 30 minutes before the landing. I could not hear them but from the gestures and body language, I can imagine that it was not official or serious talks. I was thinking what if there is some fault in the plane or there is a G force. Then who is going to control the plane. Before that I was travelling in Iberia from Madrid-San Jose, which was a 15 hours flight, and i never saw the captain out of the cockpit. Irresponsibilty is the only infection in Pakistan and Bhoja is also suffering from it.

    • Muq Muj says:

      There is always a G-force of 9.8 m/s^2. Modern planes have auto-pilot. However, still no reason to leave the plane unattended.

  21. Hamza says:

    After thousands of flights this ill fated aircraft made, its fuselage becomes weaker because of the repetative compression and decompression and this isn’t the only thing which could have caused it, weather,malfunctioning instruments and lack of maintenance played a vital role in this crash. Pilots are not to be blamed they were one of the most experienced ex Airforce Pilots!

  22. farooq says:

    LIGHTENING

  23. Kausar A Jafri says:

    The government has very promptly announced formation of a judicial commission to probe the Bohja Air Crash. The commission is headed by a retired Judge of Supreme Court . I fail to understand what qualification the retired Judge possess to hold an inquiry of a purely technical matter?. In the presence of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Board ( SIB) , there is no other competent body in Pakistan to probe in to air accidents .

    Holding an inquiry by a judicial commission would be a waste of public money and time.

  24. Hassan says:

    Accidents donot happen for a single reasons, multiple things going wrong at the same time in a sequence become a reason for a disaster. Those 127 people have paid the price for a weak and corrupt system from top to bottom.

    Safety First is a rule that the whole world follows but I have always seen money first in Pakistan. Its our attitude that has brought upon us all these disasters. These are wakeup calls not accidents.

  25. From India says:

    No one deserves such a tragic death. It is strange to hear that the airlines was grounded earlier. Did it have the necessary clearance to fly again?
    Hope the Pak Govt looks after the welfare of it’s citizens. Hope such an incident never happens again.
    Bless the departed souls.

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