AirBlue Commercial Aircraft Crashes in Islamabad

[Haywards 5000]

My Deep condolence to the victims families.....

 

[Spring Onion]

Is

BUT he's speaking reality...!!! Isn't he.? There's NO competent ppl to deal with fires/disasters. After earthquake in Kashmir/Islamabad there wasn't even cranes to lift those concrete slabs.

edit:Weather network's rep just said on GEO TV that BlackBox has been found.

This basta.rd should be sent to do rescue work and see how its difficult to do that in a gorge/s

 

[sparklingway]

Since even after reminding people that speculation is useless and pointless at this time, I'll copy-paste posts from pilots and some learned people:-

The aircraft was on second attempt to land beyond the minimas. his first approach was a ‘Go Around’, the pilot reference to execution of missed approach to landing when on a limited precision approach to the airport he must have some visual refernce to the runway, beyond a lot of physics and math, in order to proceed. Islamabad instrument approach system called the ILS doesnt allow planes to descend beyond 300 feet if no visual reference is made to normal landing runway in north westerly direction called Runway 30. To avoid unfavorable winds and skuzzy weather, however, planes these days were usingthe opposite direction runway called Runway 12 and that placed approach to the runway from margalla hill side the only choice to large aircraft. Without reverse track sensing equipment, it can get tricky, but this airplane was perhaps equipped with everything like GPS aided terrain recognition and proximity warning that would have alerted the pilots to high ground. It even had enough fuel to fly back to karachi an option the pilots shuold have taken than to fall to the get-there-itus phenomenon, thats when pilots feel they can make it work. may be it was the radar controllers that put the plane on minimum vectoring when its them that guide planes instead of pilots making turning decisions. or may be the pilots were low enuogh for a contact approach (visually identifying ground while progressing) inadvertantly intercepted by a sudden cloud, only the investigation will tell what really happened. Nothing should be said in the hindsight. as a pilot, i have not taken a chance, especially when i had children with me. i feel thats what must be done, to get out of there and fly to safety and come some other time. i never expect a pilot with the kind of experience Air Blue Pilots have to blunder into idiocy. there are quite a few friends i have who call the Air Blue ‘Scare Blue’, based on their experiences with the airline has onducted itself. I flew out of Islamabad only yesterday and knew it instantly I had to be extremely careful.

This is very tragic.
May I try and put some perspective on this for those above who don’t seem to know much about aviation but are writing anyway.
If you are using runway 12 as it seems (the Murree road side) there is no ILS. The ILS is on runway 30 (the opposite side). So the procedure (which I never thought was safe) is you fly the ILS to 30 and then you break off and turn right and fly parallel to the Margalla hills and then turn back in and land on 12. It’s not a circle but more of a race-track pattern.
You may ask why not have the aircraft turn left rather than right towards the Margalla Hills. The reason is that on the left of runway 30 is Dhamial Air Base, GHQ and so on and as far as I remember that is all so-called “Restricted” airspace. You cannot fly over it.
This is CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) not as stated above.
Final point, when you are flying parallel to the Margalla Hills, you are required to keep the airport on your left in sight. So I can visualize the captain in the left seat looking left. Maybe the F/O was flying and craning his neck too. They just seem to have drifted into the Margalla Hills — perhaps because of high winds. They lost what is called “Situational Awareness”. Basically they did not know where they were.
May those who perished rest in eternal peace.

There is too much ill-informed speculation here. The pilot a “hero”? He was an ex-PIA captain on the Jumbo with thousands of hours of flying time and must have known Islamabad by heart. Two aircraft had already executed a go-around and diverted to Lahore. The weather can change very quickly and maybe the pilot felt that he could give it a try. We don’t know what ATC told him and I am sure the ATC tapes will be kept secret from the public.
This is a case of human error, sadly the most common cause of air accidents 70% of which happen on take-off/approach to land.
If he was executing a go-around as some are speculating then the go-around procedure for 30 is straight ahead and a LEFT turn away from Margall hills. If he was going around approaching 12, it is straight ahead and a turn RIGHT, away from the same hills.
He was obviously circling to land on 12 (wind was from 050 not 090 as I reported earlier at about 16 kts) and drifted outside the DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) arc he has to fly. The arc is very clearly drawn on his approach chart. He must have flown this procedure at Islamabad a hundred times in his flying career. Why did he drift outside the arc and hit the hills this time killing everyone?

Distance from BBIA to the foot of Margalla Hills :- A mere 10 miles.

A pilot losing sight and losing situational awareness in high winds and low visibility while circling over an airport can lose control and the plane can be at the foot of Margalla Hills in a mere three minutes and at 3000 or 2600 feet pulling up would be impossible.

Here is a photo of the ill-fated AP-BJB:-

Can we just throw out all conspiracies until the facts are clear?And since none of us is a qualified air crash investigator, it is pointless to put out your nonsense. The rescue workers are working in a really hard situation with dense forests and smoke rising from the debris which is making helicopter flights difficult as well. Please, just stop this-that nonsense, media-is-bad, why-is-shahid-masood giving lectures, etc. We can deal with that later.

Also, there are conspiracy theories of targeting the Presidency/Parliament, shooting down of the plane from an AA gun mounted on the Margallas are revolving around. I cannot emphasize how much I'd like people to avoid those.

 

[RescueRanger]

Such a terrible incident, heart breaking sorrow of the families and the distressed loved ones. May allah grant the bereaved strength and the fallen his mercy and eternal peace.

 

[Spring Onion]

Such a terrible incident, heart breaking sorrow of the families and the distressed loved ones. May allah grant the bereaved strength and the fallen his mercy and eternal peace.

Its more difficult when you see people you know die in such accidents.

 

[HAIDER]

Problem started,during last minute re routing call from control tower cuz of extreme fog and rain.

 

[BATMAN]

thanks to army air force and resque teams at least some moroon never use words we have no quick responce after incedent

I just watched a vedio on Times of India and they were exactly stressing on this point, while one can hear the sounds of ambulance in background.

Below is the link for your reference.

Passenger plane crashes near Islamabad-News-Videos-The Times of India

 

[Zee-Gen]

I don’t know how to express my feelings…….on Tuesday, I had an interview and the person who took it was also in the plane…….he was going back to capital…..I hardly talked with him for 10 minutes……but will remember him always in my prayers…..may all departed souls rest in peace.......amen

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Just returned from friend's house, his dad was captain in that flight.. Inna lilah he wa inna ilai he rajeoon...!!!
Its been quit a sad day for me .. !!!

 

[DesiGuy]

indeed, very sad.

 

[Trisonics]

History of crashes in commercial aviation show that it takes a huge loss of life to fix something already known or ignored, be it with the plane itself, the safety regulations, pilot training or the airports...really sad...RIP .

 

[SekrutYakhni]

Just returned from friend's house, his dad was captain in that flight.. Inna lilah he wa inna ilai he rajeoon...!!!
Its been quit a sad day for me .. !!!

Indeed very tragic accident!
May God bless everyone who died!

 

[Nishan]

I send My Deep condolences to the victims families & to all Pakistani Brothers . . . Enna Llah wa Enna Elayh Raje'oun

Jordan, Amman, July 28 (Petra) -- His Majesty King Abdullah II on Wednesday sent a cable to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, condoling him over victims of an air crash near the Pakistani capital Islam Abad.
The King expressed his deep sorrow and heartfelt condolences over the tragedy.

 

[Ahmad]

when will the black box inormation be analyzed and annouced to the public?

 

[Zeluvaa]

Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajeoon

My heart goes out to the family and friends of those who died in this crash. I cannot even imagine the pain they must be going through. May Allah help them in these sad times.

RIP to the dead.