Extremely sad news.
A 90 passenger plane airbus crashed going from Lahore to Karachi.
Must be people going to meet their families on Eid
Shocking news! Inna lillah
Both Engines caught fire after First attempt to Land without the Landing Gear Extended DOWN! 
…So Aircraft Touched down on Runway Scraping the Engine Nacelles on the Runway damaging both the Engines!..
On another Note one Passenger called his Family on Approach saying they are ready to land, or something to that affect…
Yup, really sad but so angry ! Mind going in 2 directions.
Intentional: Could this be done to weaken Civil Association Aviation Authority (CAA) as they recently opposed Airport outsourcing idea.
Unintentional: The problem must’ve been with maintenance. Failure of landing gear, plus dual engine failure does not happen just like that.
In 2017 I went to Pak and just while the plane was in the process of landing in Islamabad, little kids were standing in the aisle, I was shocked. Forget seat belts, they were flipping standing! Parents nor any other adult passenger said anything and cabin crew obviously left after checking for everyone’s seat belt. It was Etihad I think, not PIA but still wow The way this one Arab cabin crew member was looking at us all throughout the flight was very embarrassing. Let me not mention the state of the plane once landed and everyone was leaving, taubah. Some sort of toufaan occured during the 2-3h flight.
No one can convince Pakistanis to abide by the rules, even if it concerns their own safety.
Extremely sad news. It is far too easy to say this now but I wish the pilot had attempted belly landing before going around once again to land. I am aware it is very risky and most likely the plane would have caught on fire but at the very least, it would have been on ground and away from residential area....
Inalilla
Pakistan needs to start promoting aircraft engineering and mechanics in order to attract bright minds to the field, they could really use them. These accidents are becoming too common now, It is heart wrenching.
RIP
I was just trying to imagine that feeling when you are almost there, last few seconds left, you can see the ground very close and feel it. Its like the travel is over. You have reached the destination.
And then, this happens.. Its shocking beyond words.
Inna Lillahi Wa Innal Alehi Rajiyun
May Allah grant Jannah to those who..passed away. Word can't express how sad this incident is..
Very good analysis of this unfortunate incident:
Thanks for sharing the brilliant postmortem above. I reviewed lots of other material as well. What I’ve been able to piece together is that the pilots continued with a risky(as it requires a lot of manual adjustments) approach angle despite caution from the tower. The pilots got caught up in doing those manual adjustments, and FORGOT to lower the landing gear on first approach. So the plane was 100% mechanically fit before the first touchdown that damaged both the engines. Blaming the pilots is easy now but they were making split-second decisions which are not always the best. Will wait for the investigation report though to be sure.
Cockpit Procedures during Approach to Landing are shared between Captain in the LEFT seat who is Flying the Aircraft during Approach to Landing and Radio Communications are the Co-Pilots Job who Talks to the Tower!
Seems The Captain may have attempted to Lower the Landing Gear but the Warning Buzzer (in the Audio recording) was telling them it Failed to Lower! Hence they Scraped the bottom of the Engine Nacelles on the Runway before the Captain initiated the Go Around!..
The question is if the landing gear warning sound was clearly audible, then why did the pilots continue the first landing all the way to the runway?
Another theory that has been put forward by an experienced Airbus pilot and seems very plausible is this,
- At the first landing attempt the plane was at 3000-3500ft altitude when 5 miles away. It should have been no higher than 2000ft
- The Air Controller told the pilots to go around and try again at the proper altitude
- The pilots insisted that they were comfortable
- The plane was cleared for landing
- The plane came onto the runway too fast because of the steep descent
- The pilot realized that he will overshoot the runway and decided to lift off
- The landing gear was retracted too soon and the engines scraped the runway before lift off
- The engines were damaged and lost power before the 2nd landing
In conclusion, shocking unprofessionalism from the pilots and the air contollers
Restored attachments:
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Some pretty good discussion going on at the History of PIA forum on the PK8303 crash
Yes, I have seen this conclusion and makes sense.
Unfortunately pilots brought this on themselves by not following the protocol / SOP / approach. There is some blame on the control tower as well as to why they allowed the landing if it was not following the approach correctly whether pilot is comfortable or not, did they see if landing gears were fully down before 1st landing etc.
#3 and #4 above are examples of ‘sab chalta hai’ culture which needs to be rooted out from all professional organizations
There was a retired PIA safety officer, from the golden era of PIA, on a talk show yesterday who made many pertinent observations. Prime among them was the fact that there have been 3 crashes in the last 5 years, yet the Chief Safety Officer hasn’t been removed. I do not like the idea of removing people just for the optics, but in this particular case I think if other past risky approaches are found to have taken place without the pilots being taken to task, that would mean the safety officer was not addressing safety PROACTIVELY, and should be removed. Reminds me of a 2013 quote by Trump, “Leadership: Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.”
Here is another fine analysis of the communication with the tower. It also addresses why the tower was not confronting the pilot.
Pilots and Doctors are not supposed to take on risks or take unconventional tasks if they feel “comfortable” doing so. Its not about them, but the safety and well-being of others under their command which is of paramount importance.
Over-confidence and cockiness are not virtues of any professional, but the above two in particular are expected to set the bar much higher than the rest.