The pilots of a Pakistan airliner that crashed last month, killing all 98 people aboard, were preoccupied and distracted by the coronavirus pandemic as they …
The pilots of a Pakistan airliner that crashed last month, killing all 98 people aboard, were preoccupied and distracted by the coronavirus pandemic as they chatted about the bug — trying to land with the wheels still up on their first attempt, according to an initial official report about the disaster.
The Pakistan International Airlines jet slammed into a residential area near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on May 22, just days after the country lifted coronavirus restrictions and resumed domestic flights ahead of a major Muslim holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Only two people survived the crash of the Airbus A320, which was carrying 91 passengers and eight crew members. A 13-year-old neighborhood girl was critically injured and later died in a hospital.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s aviation minister blamed “human error” by the cockpit crew as well as air-traffic controllers who saw the plane’s two engines scrape the runway with a shower of sparks, but did not tell the pilots.
Investigators determined that the plane was at more than twice the correct altitude when it first approached the runway, the report said.
The badly damaged engines failed as the pilots attempted a second landing, according to the findings.
