ISLAMABAD: The black box of the ill-fated Airblue plane in which 152 people died has been found finally – after several days of contradictory reports and rumors.

The 10-year-old Airbus 321, operated by Airblue, slammed into Margalla Hills overlooking capital Islamabad in heavy rain and poor visibility on Wednesday as it came into land after a morning flight from Karachi.

According to reports, investigators searching the crash site found the plane’s black box around noon Saturday, the minister of interior and a civil aviation official said on Saturday.

“The investigating committee found the black box from the Margalla Hills this morning,” Junaid Ameen, director-general of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, told AFP by telephone.

“The black box was found from the bulk of the wreckage of the crashed plane. It is going to be a central part of our investigation,” Ameen said, adding that it would be sent to “foreign experts” for decoding.

Interior minister Rehman Malik also confirmed the find.

“I have received the confirmation that the black box of the crashed plane has been found,” Malik told a private TV news channel Geo.

Ameen said the black box was recovered at 12:55pm local time by a joint team of French experts, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Capital Development Authority and Islamabad police.

“The black box is now in our possession. Its condition and other things will be analysed. Let’s see what we are able to get from the results,” Ameen said.

A five-person team from Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, was assisting with the recovery and using cutters to slice through the wreckage.

Pakistan does not have the proper expertise to decode information stored on the recorder, so it plans to send it elsewhere, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.

The authority’s spokesman, Pervez George, said Friday that the decoding process could take a month.

There are only four laboratories in the world that analyzes the black box, one of them being based in the United States.

The Airblue crash in Islamabad that killed all 152 on board on Wednesday, was the worst aviation tragedy on Pakistani soil.

ISLAMABAD: Investigators spent a third day searching Friday for the black box of Air Blue A321 Airbus that crashed into Islamabad’s Margalla Hills, killing all 152 people on board.

The Airblue flight ED-202 crashed in a ball of fire in the forested Islamabad hills overlooking the capital in heavy rain and poor visibility on Wednesday, while trying to land after flying from Karachi.

Investigators are focusing on the black box as the flight data recorder will provide valuable clues as to why the 10-year-old Airbus 321, which was piloted by an experienced captain, came down.

“Today the investigators are going to the hilltop. The priority is the black box and any other technical clue from the wreckage,” Ramzan Sajid, spokesman for the Islamabad city administration official, told AFP.

Airblue management has been tight-lipped about any possible technical fault or pilot error until today.

Brushing aside the rumours that the pilot of the airliner was suffering from fatigue, the Chief Executive of Air Blue Airline Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the pilot had rested for 36 hours before the flight.

He said Pervaiz Iqbal Chaudhry, the pilot of the ill-fated plane was a seasoned pilot, who had 25000 hours experience to his credit.

The chief executive said that the pilot was 61- year- old, while the standard at the international level is 65 years.

Abbasi said that Flying Officer Mujttahid Chughtai was 34-year- old and he had served in Pakistan Air Force as a F-16 jetfighter pilot. He had 1700 hours experience including the 300 hours in the crashed plane.

He did not agree that there was any technical problem that resulted in airliner’s crash

Meanwhile, the search for human remains has been called off and most bodies handed over to families for burial, police said.

“We have recovered remains of all the dead bodies. Now our focus is on the investigation and we are searching for any clue which can help us,” senior Islamabad police official Bani Amin told AFP.

Monsoon rains hampered the search for two days, but aviation experts and other investigators resumed work after the weather cleared on Friday.

HERE ARE LATEST UPDATES on FLIGHT 202 AIRBLUE PLANE CRASH at Margalla Hills that killed all 152 passengers including cabin crew on board.

Dawn reported today that: When the aircraft strayed about seven nautical miles from the airport in the red zone, ground controllers once again tried to re-establish contact with the pilot at around 09:43 am.

“Panic prevailed in the Air Traffic Control room as the flight was spotted on the radars flying over Islamabad’s red zone.

“However, moments later, the Airblue flight crashed into the Margalla hills, killing all 152 people on board, including 146 passengers and six crew members.

“The plane was at an altitude of about 2,600 feet above sea level and moments before crashing into the mountains had ascended another 400 feet to about 3,000 feet above sea level.

– Was it a terrorist act? A sabotage? A hijack or a SHOOT-DOWN or a combination of all these? Questions are being asked..

– Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the possibility of sabotage couldn’t be ruled out. “We are investigating the crash from all aspects,” he said. He said the plane had strayed into a no-fly zone.

– Many flights into Islamabad had been canceled or diverted from the airport on Wednesday morning because of bad weather. Why AirBlue flight 202 was not diverted?

– Sources in the Civil Aviation Authorities have revealed the last conversation between the Airblue pilot and the control tower

– The black box of the ill-fated flight has been recovered from the area.

– 146 passengers including two infants, five children and 29 women besides eight crew members were on board.

VISIT HERE AGAIN FOR UPDATES on AIRBLUE PLANE CRASH at Margalla Hills

The Airbus A321 crash in Margalla Hills on Wednesday points to bigger problems.

Capt Iqbal Pervaiz Chaudhry had a medical history and yet was granted permission to fly a new aircraft, which he had never flown in his career before, in spite of the fact that age adversely affects reflex action that are required in emergencies, where swift pilot remedial action can avert an accident or lead to an accident.

Investigations conducted by Express Tribune scribe reveal that Capt Pervaiz Iqbal Chaudhry had been grounded about two months back and was admitted to the Aga Khan Hospital. He had uncontrollable diabetes, hypertension and cardiac problems. He was a very religious man and it could be possible that he did not rest well before the flight because of Shab-e-Barat, ET reported.

The Airblue flight 202 which crashed at Islamabad yesterday had a multiple crew, because the passenger jet was to fly from the capital to Manchester via Istanbul. The pilot-in-command Capt Pervaiz Iqbal Chaudhry, 62, had joined the airline after his retirement from PIA, following the extension in age utilisation granted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to allow airlines to utilise pilots in case of shortages, subject to medical fitness.

Three aircraft, including the ill-fated Airbus 321, were inbound for Islamabad. Two PIA flights were diverted, but the A321 made a ‘Missed Approach’ at Runway 30, which means instead of deciding against landing at the airport, the pilot executes a ‘Go Around’, which is similar to takeoff with the same high engine power and flaps selection. The procedure for a ‘Missed Approach’ at Runway 30 is to climb straight out and turn, heading 240 at 2.5 nautical miles on the DME with further climb to 9,000 feet.

In this case, according to ET report, for unknown reasons the pilot did not make the mandatory turn and instead continued to fly straight out and hit the Margalla Hills adjacent to Sector F6/1 which is located over six nautical miles from Runway 30, where the ‘Missed Approach’ procedure was made. The A320 FMC system requires the pilot to give a command to the computer to execute a ‘Go Around’, failing which the aircraft will proceed on the last heading selected.

Meanwhile, investigators were looking into causes of the crash that killed all 152 on board the air Blue flight ED 202 in Margalla Hills, said a senior Civil Aviation Administration officer to the media.

“They’re going through records and documents, though they couldn’t go up because of bad weather,” he said, adding the plane’s flight data recorder has yet to be recovered.

The control tower at the airport was sealed off, and radio traffic between the plane and the tower was being examined.

“Time is very precious,” the investigation team’s head, Khawaja Abdul Majeed, told DawnNews after arriving in Islamabad late Wednesday from Karachi.

“We have to collect evidence as soon as possible, so we don’t have much time.”

While Wednesday’s crash is the worst aviation accident inside Pakistan, the state-owned airline PIA has had worse disasters. In 1979 and 1992, PIA jets crashed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Kathmandu, Nepal, killing 156 and 167 people, respectively.

Within Pakistan, the last major aviation accident was in 2006 when a PIA plane crashed near the central city of Multan killing 45 people.

Pakistani Talk Show Off The Record with Kashif Abbasi discusses why Air Blue jet crashed in Margalla Hills in capital Islamabad. Was it pilot error? Or was it fatigue? Or was it bad weather? Or was it a combination of all these factors? Also, where are the injured (5 to 7) as reported earlier? Where is the lady who called that she was injured but trapped? Who was in-charge in disaster management? Guests: Dr. Shahid Masood (ARY), Mazhar Abbas (ARY), Sohail Baloch (Pilot’s Assoc), Mohsin Reza (ARY), Jamal Leghari (PML-Q)..

KARACHI: The ill-fated Air Blue passenger plane that met a dreadful fate in Margalla Hills outside capital Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board today, had made an emergency landing at the Karachi airport on July 7 due to a technical fault while heading toward Islamabad, sources told Daily Times.

An inquiry team headed by air commodore Abdul Majid formed to probe into flight 202 crash today would especially focus on this incident during its investigation, sources told the newspaper.

The Airbus 321 plane was carrying 256 passengers back then, and had developed a fault in one of its engine, sources said. They added that this information was never made public by AirBlue but it was simply announced that there was a technical glitch in the plane.

An employee of Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told the BBC that in 2008, one of Airblue’s aircraft had been grounded in Manchester in the UK – he said an inspector had noted a serious fault with the aircraft several months earlier, and the problem had not been fixed.

Raheel Ahmed, marketing general manager for Airblue, denied this and told the BBC that all aircraft in service had been listed as airworthy by the CAA.

“I have been working with Airblue for the last five years and no such incident comes to my mind. I should add that the company has the most up-to-date aircraft in Pakistan.”

Industry experts say the traffic-control protocols and navigation aids in Islamabad airport leave much to be desired also.

“Why was the plane circling at 1,600ft when the minimum for Islamabad is 3,000ft?” a local aviation told the BBC.

Meanwhile, the Airbus team is reaching Pakistan from France to investigate into flight 202 that crashed in Margalla Hills in the outskirts of Islamabad on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, search is on to recover flight 202′s data recorder, also called the black box.

ISLAMABAD: Sources in the Civil Aviation Authorities have revealed the last conversation between the Airblue pilot and the control tower.

Sources have said that the control tower issued an initial warning when the plane was getting out of the limits of the runway. The plane was travelling at nine point five nautical miles while it had to turn at five nautical miles.

All aboard Airblue passenger plane flying from Karachi to Islamabad were killed when the plane crashed in the suburb of capital Islamabad today. At least 152 people including crew member were reportedly on board.

The following conversation reportedly took place between the control tower and the pilot:

Control tower’s first warning: You are getting away from the runway.

Pilot’s response: We can see the runway.

Control tower’s second warning: Turn to your left immediately, you are heading towards Margalla Hills.

Pilot’s response: We can see that.

This was the last reply form the pilot and then the flight lost its contact with the control tower and soon after it crashed.

CAA submits initial report

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Authorities compiled their initial investigation report into the tragic plane crash.

According to the report sent to the Defence Ministry, poor visibility and the plane flying below the given altitude were the cause of the incident.

The report also revealed that a Chinese airplane was asked to land at the Islamabad airport at the same time but the pilot did not take the risk and instead changed his course.

But, the pilot of the Airblue flight took a wrong turn and instead of going right, it moved towards the left side and ended up colliding with the Margalla Hills.

Pilot’s fatigue may be behind crash: PALPA President

President of Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA), Captain Sohail Baloch on Wednesday said Margalla Hills plane crash may be attributed to pilot’s fatigue.

“The pilot may be suffering from accumulated fatigue because they are not given adequate leaves,” he told a private news channel. Captain Sohail Baloch said the route was not a no-fly zone, as speculated.

The plane exceeded the safety distance due to bad weather.

He said this decision was, again, taken by the pilot who could not determine appropriate landing route and added the ISL system’s access ends a little before Islamabad and the pilot had to resort to visual queues for landing.

There could be other reasons to the crash, which will only be uncovered after completion of investigation, he added.

Airport sources said the Air Blue flight ED-202 took off at7:50 am from Karachi to Islamabad and crashed at 9:50 a.m.

(Express Tribune)

KARACHI: The captain of the Pakistani passenger jet that crashed in the hills of Islamabad on Wednesday was a top professional flying into one of the most testing airports for pilots, a colleague said.

“Islamabad airport’s location is not an easy destination to fly into,” Hashim Raza Gardezi, a former colleague of Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry who piloted the doomed Airbus A-321, told AFP.

The craggy Margalla Hills to the north of the capital and unpredictable wind patterns can make an approach extremely difficult he said, going so far as to describe Islamabad as “one of the worst weather conditions in the world”.

“Irregular wind systems surround the Margalla Hills often make it difficult for the pilots while in the air,” Gardezi, a pilot for state Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), said.

Airblue’s flight 202 from Karachi was coming into land at Benazir Bhutto International airport when witnesses saw a jet flying at unusually low altitude then heard a loud boom.

Gardezi told AFP that Chaudhry, was a true professional.

“Chaudhry was one of the finest professionals in this field… who never took unnecessary risks during his professional career.” Procedures for safe landing at Islamabad advise pilots not to descend lower than 1,000 feet (300 metres) unless they have full visibility of the runway.

Gardezi said half an hour before the crash, a PIA flight was diverted to the eastern city of Lahore owing to poor weather conditions.

“With the experience Chaudhry had, I suppose the weather had got better by then prompting him to go for landing,” he told Geo television.

Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the pilot had been in contact with the control tower at the airport until just before the crash.

“In the last conversation with the control tower, the pilot had been given landing clearance and the plane was proceeding normally for landing before it crashed into the hills,” said Riaz-ul-Haq, the authority’s deputy director.

The civil aviation authority said all possible causes would be investigated, including terrorism and bad weather, although officials gave no indication that an attack might have been to blame.