Relevance of ATRs in modern fleet?
By
Salman Siddiqui
Published: December 8, 2016
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KARACHI: ATR 42-500 aircraft, which are mostly operated on regional routes of short distances and with not more than 42 passengers on board, can best be recognised by their prominent six-blade propellers.
Pakistan International Airline operates the aircraft to facilitate tourists to Northern Areas from Islamabad and on other routes, including Karachi-Gwadar and Islamabad-Lahore.
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PIA’s official website says: “This aircraft has enabled the airline to provide its valued customers… to fly to far-flung and remote destinations of the country.”
ATR stands for Aerei da Trasporto Regionale or Avions de transport regional and ‘42’ means that it is a 42-seat aircraft. The state-owned airline inducted the first ATR 42-500 into its fleet on June 1, 2006. It has a total of five ATRs in a fleet of 37 aircraft at present. It inducted the 5th aircraft on June 18, 2007.
The aircraft – which crashed near Abbottabad on Wednesday with 42 passengers, five cabin crew members and one ground engineer on the board, on the way to Islamabad from Chitral – was inducted on April 6, 2007.
These aircraft are made in France and Italy. The loaded aircraft with passengers and luggage can fly to a maximum distance of 1,555 kilometres (840 nautical miles).
Its speed is 554 kilometres per hour at cruise altitude. The double-engine aircraft has a maximum fuel capacity of 1,486 US gallon/each and can remain up in the air to a ceiling height of 25,000 feet from the ground.
The low-speed small-haul aircraft is considered to be fuel efficient and suitable for small routes.
In August 2012, another one of the ATRs in PIA’s fleet skidded off the runway during its landing due to heavy rain. Fortunately, the incident caused no harm to passengers and staffers on board.
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When PIA announced to induct another model — ATR 72-500 — sometimes in 2013-14, the Pakistan Air Line Pilots’ Association (Palpa) had gone against the inductions.
Palpa General Secretary Captain Rizwan Ahmed, however, demanded an independent investigation into the crash at Abbottabad. “PIA and the Civil Aviation Authority should not be made part of the investigation team.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2016.
