PIA plane meets accident in Paris

LAHORE - A PIAs Lahore-bound flight PK 734 met an accident at Charles de Gaulle International Airport Paris, when the aircraft went into the soft ground while taxiing, said sources in the airline on Wednesday. Though the accident of this PIA aircraft caused limited physical damage - just a damaged landing gear and a severe jerk to the passengers yet the operational damages could be more serious, said a senior PIA officer seeking anonymity.
PALPA, an association of the PIA pilots, has claimed that the accident took place only for the reason that pilot of the ill-fated aircraft Captain Junaid Abbasi was tired due to overwork.
As per details, the aircraft, a Boeing 777 LR, with over 400 passengers on board after landing at Paris early in the morning on August 25, was on the taxi track bound for the apron, when its right main landing gear wheels went into the adjacent ground area, badly damaging the landing gear structure. Reports revealed that the aircraft speed was slightly higher than recommended, and the pilot moved the aircraft to away from the centre line of the taxi way, which resulted in the main landing gears getting stuck in the soft ground. Passengers on board felt a severe jerk. The taxi track remained jammed because of the aircraft, causing disturbance to other traffic at the busy Paris airport. This Boeing 777 with registration AP-BHV was being flown by Capt Junaid Abbasi in command. The sources claimed that that the pilot had not taken proper rest before operating the flight and was under pressure to fly because of the undeclared go-slow policy of the pilots.
Office-bearer of the PALPA while giving the details of the overwork of Junaid Abbasi said that on July 2 last, he operated PK-782 from Toronto to Karachi and then PK-370 from Karachi to Islamabad and his flying time was 19 hours and 55 minutes. He was supposed to avail 88 hours of rest after that duty but he availed himself only 37 hours rest and then on July 5, he operated flight from Islamabad to Riyadh.
On July 25, he operated PK-712 from New York to Lahore and then PK-852 from Lahore to Islamabad, piling up total duty timing of 17 hours and 30 minutes. On July 28 he operated PK-385 from Islamabad to Lahore and then Lahore to Manchester as PK-709 and his duty time was 14 hours and 25 minutes.
On July, 29 he performed duty for 9 hours and 5 minutes; on July 31, he performed duty for 9 hours and 55 minutes.
PALPA claimed that as per Air Navigation Order (ANO), a pilot can only perform 35 hours in the working agreement pilot is bound to perform only 30 hours and contrary to both said pilot had performed 38 hours in the month of July only.
Whereas PIA spokesman was of the view that all it was technical fault and those terming the incident human error were hatching conspiracy against the airline. He said that plane was now in order and has flown to its destination. About the over worked pilots, he said that it is not possible for a pilot to be overwork as in this way his flying licence could also be cancelled. He said that PIA cannot put the safety of its valued passengers at the hand of such pilot who is overworked.