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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I am in US and my brother and sister were on the preceding flight of the one which crashed. I was horrified to the facts my brother shared with me his experience of Bhoja Air flight after they reached Islamabad. He mentioned that he has been on PIA, AirBlue and others but this one was horrific in the sense that aircraft was carrying beyond its payload limits and barely took off after an unusual long run at Karachi and fail to ascend as such which caused an excessive delay for the aircrew to serve the passengers. I think if records are pulled, it will for sure to see that how much luggage and passengers were there and what was allowed.
Thanks
Just want to let families know we are all sharing your grief, may Allah spare the souls of the deceased and give you courage to cope with this immense tragedy.
Ameen and give them the courage to bring the culprit to justice who killed their dear ones.
BHOJA airlines should be held accountable for this! I’ve studied aircrashes in our history and a plane doesnt simply just crash! Pakistan’s aviation laws shouldnt have allowed bhoja airlines to continue with such an incompetent airplane! Just for saving their expenses, bhoja airlines flew a really old plane! No wonder they claimed to have financial troubles! Its time Pakistanis fix their moral compass! We all realize that we can’t cheat other without consequences! God is watching! Please understand this!!
May Allah grant the shuhada of the crash Paradise, Ameen
I live near ‘loi beer’ where the plane crashed. I saw from my home window the flames of the fire moving in the air, the whole area was bright as it was like sun shinning and later I got to know that it was Bhoja Air plane on fire.
May all the deceased rest in peace, Ameen.
Among the victims, there was a newly wed couple, Tanveer Jan and Mrs Sadaf Tanveer. They got married on 18th March 2012. They were going to Rawalpindi for their honeymoon celebration but they lost their lives meanwhile. This is really a great shock for their families. May Allah help them bear this grief and bless the souls of deceased… Ameen
Did the heads of the government pay any tribute to the 127 dead? This government has nothing to do with the people of Pakistan.
CAA is the only responsible for the whole incident! Strict investigation should be done specially the person , reporting officer and the higher authorities of CAA who allowed to land the plane!
question is why ministry of finance and ministry of defence..was interested in granting licence to bhoja airline..and there was political pressure on director CAA..to grant it
You can watch Images of the accident at
http://airbluemag.blogspot.com/p/private-air-line-bhojas-boeing-737.html
Videos at youtube: http://youtu.be/xSF54CDAFks
Expert Opinion at: http://youtu.be/rPnV2a0t9gE
It is not Bhoja airline only,look into the affairs of PIA. 1/3 planes in the fleet are side lined for the lack of parts or lack of maintenance. Quite a few are in the service of VIPs which can be anybody in Pakistan. European countries many a times have disallowed PIA flying into their airports for the reason of poor maintenance. As expat living in US I quit flying by PIA, simple reason – unreliability. Now ,Mid. Eastern airlines like QATAR & EMERATES are the choice and good one too.
It is the matter of immense sad for all of us.
This will keep happening in pakistan as we never prob the incident and never highlight the negligence and hide human errors to save the deliquant persons.In this whole incident i can see line of human errors. It is another delima for us that we know all facts will be hidden soon. Media take his responsibility and pressurise the concerns who play with lives and hide the facts.
The funny thing is that only the head of Bhoja is placed on ECL. We should also look into the workings of CAA and how many people palms there were greased? Arresting the owner, and not investigating the role of authorities would be a travesty of justice.
I’m speechless after seeing this incident on TV, I think CAA is equally responsible for giving them clearance to land and shoul be included in investigation and so is the air traffic controller who was on duty…
Be sensible.How is an air traffic controller supposed to know the operational condition of an incoming aeroplane to refuse landing permission.
One important coincidence to be noted between Airblue and Bhoja air is similarity in terms of weather, both were landing and that it was the same airport. I am not sure but one common thing that needs to be seen is the microwave landing system at Islamabad airport. It seems that somehow the landing system misdirects the aircraft, which might be corrected at visual contact but coming too late in two cases. I hope investigators must have considered this as well
Can there be a coincidence of Inaugural flight followed by Crash. This was a sabotage similar to the Air Blue, whereas PIA is being forced become bankrupt, Mr Z wants his sister to take the initiative of starting a new airline business in Pakistan. My good friend was in Pakistan who had series of meeting with the sister’s prospective team. He is a German and based out of Singapore, who endorsed that this airline is very much in agenda.
Please provide the name of the German contact as well.
The less said is better, special giving judgement.I really pray that the investigation reveal the real problem , either act of God or human negligence.
I would be interesting to know about Bhoja Air maintence and prepardness to fly a safe airline and what was the role of the regulators.
Once again, chaos reigns at the site of any accident.
There is no cordon marked off area where public is not allowed in. This results in all sorts of problems : crucial bits of evidence could be destroyed. It takes ages for authorities to arrive but once they do instead of walking through wreckage and debris, a cordon is the first thing that should be thrown around the crash area and no one allowed in except for emergency crews or accident investigators. There are soldiers with guns milling about the wreckage. Just what exactly are they doing ? They are supposed to be maintaining a cordon. Why are they walking through the debris ?
The people may have good intentions but it always appear chaotic as they mill about the area gawking at everything.
I have always noticed this on the news between disasters in the West and say Pakistan.
This aircraft was given permission by directorate of CAA for a single flight only! This aircraft was rolled out of the hanger, and hastily checked and inspected.
The airworthiness certificate was given by the CAA directorate in conjunction with the ministry of defense. One can understand that such an “Inspection” must have been carried out after a handsome bribe and/or handout…..
This aircraft was not airworthy.
I suggest readers go through http://flightsafety.org/ap/ap_may93.pdf report on an air crash involving Boeing 737-200 during 1992-93, with eerie similarity of circumstances. The aircraft approaching Colorado airport suddenly rolled to right and crashed nose down few minutes from landing. NTSB after an exhaustive investigation could not come to absolute conclusion for crash, but believed the main reason was the atmospheric disturbance. Just as in Islamabad Colorado approach corridor was in turbulent weather with severe “horizontal axis vortex” caused by high wind and mountainous terrain.
My heart felt condolences are with the bereaved families. Who will bring the responsibles into justice. How an old retired airplane got permission to do havoc. who buy and bring this discarded airplane to Pakistan. should we ask the supreme court to take sue motto action. The higher ups are requested to look into the real depth of the accident. we can only hope so….
How can a retired aircraft be allowed to fly with passengers ? Just holding the CEO of the airline accountable is not sufficient, Pakistan needs to revisit the civil aviation laws. It’s quite scary to learn that the aircraft was made in 1984…
Drs Abdul Qadir and Asadullah were travelling in the same flight to appear in their post graduate exam (viva) in Psychiatry, due to held on 24-26 April in PIMS/CPSP
this is a heart-breaking news..It feels terrible to even read the news. God bless all their souls. No humna words can repair such a damage.
Every day, every time there should be many aeroplanes passing through the worst wheather around the world including take-off and landing, but do we ever heard such incidents like in our country Pakistan? Actually we are experts in lifting dead bodies.
First my heartfelt condolences to all those families who are left behind mourning their dear ones. Forces of nature take their full toll if ‘nature’ is challenged by those who intentionally ignore the design requirements and fail to respect the constraints that need to be fully revered when man wants to fly. Boeing 737-200 line is out of production since 1988, the plane that met the disaster was more than 27 years old. It flew under British Ownership in 1985, in 1999 the plane flown by US Delta Airline regional carrier Comair . In January 2011, the plane was placed in Johannesburg known as airline graveyard waiting to be ‘taken to pieces’ or leased to airlines like Bhoja for a paltry sums. The aircraft was air worthy or not one cannot declare yet; though tired, aged, aircrafts bought from the aircraft storage facilities should be comprehensively checked by CAA before licensing.
Most likely it was not a pilot error. The plane approached Islamabad Airport under south westerly gusting tail wind at 30 knots , thunderstorm, visibility 3 km. The plane entered a cloudburst and probably was struck by lightning causing the crash. Airports are closed to traffic when lightning is on the radar, and the airliners usually referred to an alternate destination by the ground control. Pilots avoid flying through thunderstorms. Lightning associated with the high winds can bring down a plane and flip a jetliner like a speck. This accident connect series of poor judgment, first one a plane from junkyard is licensed and second the Control Tower equipment on the ground that fails to identify the weather forecasting so as to warn the plane of cloud bursts and thunders. Better equipment on the ground should have help the plane avoid the cloud burst.
The sum total of this farce of errors points the fingers to all and sundry from owners to those who license and to the people who do not take the job earnestly in the control tower. May the tragedy serve lessons and we manage life with sensitivities that are integral to such undertakings.
Just after the sad incident last evening, I browsed the internet for some more researching and to my surprise I saw the following statement on many reliable news websites:
“The crashed aircraft had been retired by Shaheen Air, and then acquired and placed in service by Bhoja Air in March 2012.”
Or may be I should say I am not at all surprised as this is a common place in Pakistan; the only humans being businessmen, bureaucrats, politicians and high gentry. Rest of the awam is just toys for the above mentioned and it’s their choice how to play with our fates and lives. All of the affectees must be angry on Bhoja, but indeed the culprits make a triangle, the three angles being Bhoja, Shaheen Air and the Government/CAA authorities who gave Bhoja license to fly despite it’s obsolete fleet. I have no hopes in the government, courts and law-enforcement agencies, so I request the media to probe into this whole matter and unveil the responsible.