Airbus team extends stay for Karachi Air Crash probe

KARACHI: A team of Airbus, arrived in Karachi on Tuesday to assist the probe in recent air crash of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-8303, visited the site of the crash again on Wednesday, ARY News reported.

A team of 11 French experts landed in Karachi on a special Airbus 338 yesterday morning and visited the location of the plane crash in Karachi.

Except two survivors, all 97 passengers and crew members of the aircraft that crashed into a residential area near Karachi airport were confirmed dead. However, no resident of the Model Colony’s Jinnah Garden, where the plane crashed, was among the deceased.

The Airbus experts today reached the the plane crash location and expected to analyse the wreckage and collect samples with equipment. The team will also get assistance of drone cameras to inquire into the incident.

The team of experts expected to focus on search of the cockpit voice recorder of the aircraft which was not traced so far.

According to sources the French team has extended its stay in Pakistan for five more days due to the untraced vice recorder of the flight.

A spokesperson of PIA yesterday said that the cockpit voice recorder of the ill-fated PK-8303 was not recovered

The voice recorder which is installed in the rear side of the aircraft was not found by the investigators as yet, said the PIA spokesperson, adding that it is suspected that the voice recorder was dropped far from the crash site as the aircraft’s tail had hit the ground first.

The investigators have expanded the searching area to find out the missing voice recorder. The spokesperson appealed the residents not to put any part of the plane inside their houses. The citizens were also advised to immediately hand over the pieces of aircraft’s wreckage to the officials, investigation team or Rangers’ personnel.

The Airbus experts yesterday inspected the wreckage and marks of an attempt of belly landing of the flight at the runway of Karachi airport.

The team has also demanded complete record of one year of the Airbus 320 and also asked the number of times the aircraft was ground. The team also asked about the detail of the repair work on faults according to the checklist and other technical details.

The French team on Tuesday got a briefing from the PIA officials and asked about any fault of the alarming system of the airliner.