Investigation of PIA plane crash enters into final phase

KARACHI: The investigation process of crashed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane, PK-8303, has entered into its final phase as French experts would complete their probe till Sunday, citing sources, ARY News reported on Friday.

Sources told ARY News that the 11-member visiting team of Airbus company comprising French experts have collected important evidences of the crashed aircraft.

The French experts will depart for Paris on Monday with the plane’s black box, cockpit voice recorder to decode it. Following their scheduled departure after completing the six-day visit, the aviation authorities have permitted a special flight to land in Pakistan.

The director of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued directives for the special flight likely to land at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport on May 31.

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

The investigation team of Airbus had also paid a visit to the radar centre of the Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport.

The visiting foreign experts had reviewed the arrangements at the radar centre for the take-off and landing of aircraft.

Moreover, the investigation team had inspected different equipment at the radar room besides witnessing the process of landing and take-off of the planes.

Except for 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.