Airblue Flight 202
Encyclopedia
Airblue Flight 202 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight which crashed on 28 July 2010 near Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

, the capital of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, killing all 146 passengers and six crew on board. It is the deadliest air accident to occur in Pakistan to date. The aircraft, an Airblue
Airblue
Airblue Limited is a private airline with its head office on the 12th floor of the Islamabad Stock Exchange Towers in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is Pakistan's second largest airline with over 20% share of the domestic market...

 operated Airbus A321-231 narrow-body
Narrow-body aircraft
A narrow-body aircraft is an airliner with a fuselage aircraft cabin width typically of 3 to 4 metres , and airline seat arranged 2 to 6 abreast along a single aisle...

 jet airliner, crashed in the Margalla Hills
Margalla Hills
The Margalla Hills—the foothills of the Himalayas—are a series of small-elevation hills located north of Islamabad, Pakistan. Margalla Range has an area of 12,605 hectares. The hill range nestles between an elevation of 685 meters at the western end and 1,604 meters on its east.- Etymology :Two...

 north of Islamabad during a flight from Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

's Jinnah International Airport
Jinnah International Airport
Jinnah International Airport is Pakistan's largest international and domestic airport. It is located in Karachi, Pakistan, and its passenger terminal is also commonly known as the جناح ٹرمینل Jinnah Terminal...

 to Benazir Bhutto International Airport
Benazir Bhutto International Airport
Benazir Bhutto International Airport بینظیر بھٹّو بین الاقوامی ہوائی اڈہ is the third-largest airport in Pakistan, serving the capital Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi in the province of Punjab...

. Air traffic controllers reportedly lost contact with the flight crew during its attempt to land in dense fog and heavy monsoon rain.

The accident was the first fatal crash involving an Airbus A321, a long variant of the Airbus A320 family
Airbus A320 family
The Airbus A320 family is a family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus Industrie.Airbus was originally a consortium of European aerospace companies, and is now fully owned by EADS. Airbus's name has been Airbus SAS since 2001...

 of short to medium range airliners. Based in Islamabad, Airblue is Pakistan's second largest airline, with over 30% share of the domestic market. At the time of the accident the airline operated seven aircraft, all in the A320 family.

Aircraft

The aircraft that crashed was an Airbus A321-231, registered AP-BJB, manufacturer's serial number 1218, which was built in 2000. This was the first fatal crash for the A321, and the second hull-loss of the type. The aircraft had originally been delivered to Aero Lloyd
Aero Lloyd
Aero Lloyd Flugreisen GmbH & Co was a charter airline based in Oberursel, Germany.- History :Aero Lloyd was originally founded on December 5, 1980. It was originally headquartered in Frankfurt. The airline start operation with 3 McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 ex Garuda Indonesia.The airline ceased...

 and used by Aero Flight
Aero Flight
Aero Flight GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs-KG was an airline based in Oberursel , Germany. It operated and scheduled an international charter passenger service.-Code data:*IATA Code: GV*ICAO Code: ARF*Callsign: Aero Fox-History:...

 before being taken up by Airblue in 2006. It had accumulated approximately 34,000 flight hours in some 13,500 flights.

Accident

The flight left Karachi at 07:50 local time
UTC+6
UTC+06 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +06:00. This time is used in:-As standard time :*Bangladesh - previously used this as standard time and UTC+07:00 as daylight saving time*Bhutan...

 (01:50 UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...

). Initial reports suggested that flight controllers at Benazir Bhutto International Airport lost contact with the aircraft at 09:43 local time (03:43 UTC) after they delayed its landing 13 minutes earlier. It was reported that the poor weather had forced controllers to divert another aircraft attempting to land 30 minutes before the crash.

The aircraft approached Islamabad from the southeast, following a procedure that required it to fly toward the airport until making visual contact. It was then to have flown around the airport to the east and north, keeping within a distance of 5 nmi (9.3 km), until lining up with runway 12, which faces toward the southeast. The aircraft crashed in the mountains outside the 5 nmi (9.3 km) radius, approximately 8 nmi (14.8 km) north of the airport, facing almost due west, before it could line up with runway 12 for final approach.

While the BBC reported that officials stated that "there was nothing in conversations between the pilot and the Islamabad control tower that suggests anything was wrong", The New York Times gave an account of communications between the aircraft and the ground that indicated otherwise. The newspaper claimed that the pilots were warned that they were flying away from the runway, to which the pilot responded “I can see”. The controller then told the flight crew to “immediately turn left, Margalla [Hills] are ahead”, before the pilot again replied “we can see it”. An airline official stated that the pilots did not send any emergency signals prior to the crash. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated that the plane was at 2600 feet (792.5 m) as it approached Islamabad but went back up to 3000 feet (914.4 m) before eventually crashing. The altitude of 2600 feet (792.5 m) was above the safe minimum descent altitude (2510 feet (765 m) above sea level, or 852 feet (259.7 m) above ground level) had the aircraft remained within the 5 nmi (9.3 km) radius of the airport.

One witness on the ground, who was out walking, stated that "the plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down". Others described the plane as being lower than it should have been. "I wondered why the plane wasn't flying higher as it was flying towards the hill", one stated. "Then within three or four minutes I heard a loud explosion". Another said that "it was raining. I saw the plane flying very low from the window of my office". Imran Abbasi told The New York Times that he "could tell it was trouble because it stayed so low even though the mountains were up ahead". He stated that the jet was "flying as low as a four-story building". It was reported that Mr. Abbasi said that "as the aircraft started to turn, the right side of its front banged into the highest mountain, emitting an instant billow of blue fire and black smoke".

The plane was found near Daman-e-Koh
Daman-e-Koh
Daman-e-Koh, about 3000ft from sea level and almost 1000ft higher than City of Islamabad, is a viewing point and hill top modern garden, popular among the residents as well as the visitors to this capital town of the nation....

 viewing point in the Margalla Hills outside Islamabad. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

reported that "television footage of the crash site showed smoke and burning debris strewn in a swathe cutting through the forest. Rescue helicopters hovered overhead. Fire was visible, and smoke was blowing up from the scene."

The weather conditions before the accident, as detailed by the 03:00 UTC METAR
METAR
METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting....

 (aviation routine weather observation message) report for Benazir Bhutto International Airport, were as follows: Wind from 50° (approximately north east) at 16 knots (31.4 km/h). Visibility 2 kilometres (1.2 mi), rain, few clouds at 1500 feet (457.2 m), few clouds at 3000 feet (914.4 m) with towering cumulus
Towering cumulus
Towering cumulus clouds can be based in the low or middle height ranges and achieve considerable vertical development in areas of deep, moist convection. They are an intermediate stage between cumulus mediocris and cumulonimbus...

. Scattered clouds at 4000 feet (1,219.2 m), broken clouds at 10000 feet (3,048 m). Temperature 24°C, dewpoint 23°C. QNH
QNH
QNH is one of the many Q codes. It is defined as, "barometric pressure adjusted to sea level." It is a pressure setting used by pilots, air traffic control , and low frequency weather beacons to refer to the barometric setting which, when set on an aircraft's altimeter, will cause the altimeter to...

 1006.5 hPa
Pascal (unit)
The pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure, internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus and tensile strength, named after the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and philosopher Blaise Pascal. It is a measure of force per unit area, defined as one newton per square metre...

.

Passengers and crew

Early reports in the morning had stated that there were over 40 injured survivors, later revised at around midday to around five to six people having been rescued, before Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Rehman Malik
27 April 2009 He has been the interior adviser since 27 March 2008.Senator A. Rehman Malik is a Pakistani politician, member of the Senate of Pakistan, and the current Interior Minister of Pakistan under the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani administration. His Second name is Shetan Malik and he...

 confirmed in the afternoon that there were in fact no survivors. Pakistani footballer Misha Dawood, 19, of Diya Football Club, Karachi, and former national athlete Zafar Saleem, who was director-general of the Sindh Workers Welfare Board, were killed in the crash.

The sixty-two year old captain of Flight 202, Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry, had 35 years and more than 25,000 hours of flying experience, with an unblemished flight safety record. The comparatively junior first officer (Sqn Ldr) Muntajib Ahmed, a former F-16 Pakistan Air Force
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...

 fighter pilot, had logged one year of experience on the Airbus A321 aircraft. Of the passengers, 110 were men, 29 were women, 5 were children, and 2 were infants. Six members of the Youth Parliament of Pakistan
Youth Parliament of Pakistan
The is patterned after the Nobel Prize Winner Society of Pakistan. The first ever Youth Parliament Pakistan was launched in 2007 by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency...

 were on board as were three off duty air hostesses, and four foreign nationals.

Nationalities of passengers

Nationality Fatalities Total
Passengers Crew
 Austria 1 0 1
 Pakistan 142 6 148
 Somalia 1 0 1
 United States 2 0 2
Total 146 6 152

Rescue attempts

A local police official stated that he had reports "that the plane fell into the Margalla Hills. There is smoke, but we have not been able to reach there. It is surrounded by the hills and there is no road access". An army helicopter arrived to survey the crash site at 10:30 local time (04:30 UTC) but was not able to land. All 152 passengers have been confirmed dead; initially there had been conflicting reports about survivors being airlifted to nearby hospitals. However, they were later proven to be wrong. All hospitals in Islamabad were declared in a state of emergency.

One person present at the scene of the crash stated that the passengers "are badly mutilated and burnt ... and there are two women among the dead". He told journalists that "a good number of rescue workers have reached the site. Other people have reached here on their own. The plane is totally destroyed. The pieces and parts scattered over a large distance. Some parts of the plane are still burning. Some bushes have been burnt." It was reported that rescuers at the crash site were "digging through the rubble with their bare hands." A senior city government official stated that the rescue operation was "very difficult ... because of the rain. Most of the bodies are charred. We're sending body-bags via helicopters."

It was reported, however, that the rescue operation was "chaotic". BBC journalist Zeesha Zafar reported that "there were fewer rescue workers there than one would have expected. A majority of them were members of the anti-terrorism police. Most of them just stood around, gazing at the burning debris, and looking as though there was not much that they could do." He stated that a police officer threatened to baton charge
Baton charge
A baton charge is a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people, usually used by police or military during public order situations. In certain countries, police are not authorised to use the tactic unless no other means can be practiced....

 rescuers if they did not "move quickly". Zafar reported that "just when the rescuers were shuffling to get to work, a policeman in plain clothes announced that an army helicopter was coming in to pour water on the fire, and that everyone should get out of the way. The work stopped. The helicopter came, circled on the spot a couple of times, and went away. No water." Zafar went on that it "was distinctly obvious that there was no co-ordination between the workers of different departments such as the police, the rescue department, the Capital Development Authority and the military ... Rescuers operated in a chaotic manner, scouring through the debris that was not on fire ... During the two hours that I stayed at the scene, I saw rescuers collect three separate loads of body parts which they tied up in shrouds. There was no telling how many people they belonged to."

Reaction

A statement on Airblue's website stated that "Airblue, with great sadness, announces the loss of flight ED 202 inbound from Karachi to Islamabad. The flight crashed during poor weather and thick fog. We regret the loss of life and are investigating the exact circumstances of this tragedy. This will be presented as soon as possible." The statement continued that "our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew." The compensation estimation process for the victims by Airblue's insurer began on 30 July 2010, with initial estimates of Rs
Pakistani rupee
The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...

 1,000,000 (USD$11,695) per victim.

Both the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....

 and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousuf Raza Gilani is the current prime minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was nominated as Prime Minister by the PPP, with the support of its coalition partners, Pakistan Muslim League , Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Muttahida Qaumi Movement, on 22 March 2008...

 sent condolences to the family of those who died in the accident. The Pakistani government declared 29 July 2010 would be a national day of mourning and announced compensation of Rs 500,000 ($5,847) to the family of every victim. U.S. President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 issued a statement confirming that two Americans had been on the flight and expressing condolences and stated that "our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those touched by this horrible accident". The Air Blue management decided that a monument would be built with the names of the victims inscribed onto it to honor the dead.

Investigation

The Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan immediately launched an investigation into the accident. Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....

 stated that they would provide full technical assistance to Pakistani authorities. A six member Airbus team, headed by Nicolas Bardou, the company's director of flight safety, arrived in Islamabad on 29 July 2010.

There was some initial confusion regarding whether the aircraft's flight recorders had been located. At first reports suggested they were found hours after the accident, but officials stated they had not been recovered. The recorders were located on 31 July, when Junaid Ameen, the director-general of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, told the Associated Free Press that "the investigating committee found the black box from the Margalla Hills this morning ... the black box was found from the bulk of the wreckage of the crashed plane." He stated that the box would be examined by "foreign experts" in Germany or France as Pakistan does not possess the equipment to decode the flight recorders. He also stated that the process of extracting information may take six months to a year. The Pakistani authorities decided to send the CVR
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...

 and FDR
Flight data recorder
A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...

 to the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those investigations. It is headquartered in Building 153 on the grounds...

 (BEA) in France.

See also

  • American Airlines Flight 965
    American Airlines Flight 965
    American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757 registered , was a scheduled flight from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia, which crashed into a mountain in Buga, Colombia on December 20, 1995, killing 151 passengers and 8...

  • Air Inter Flight 148
    Air Inter Flight 148
    Air Inter Flight 148 was a scheduled airline flight on 20 January 1992 that crashed in the Vosges Mountains, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport. 87 of the 96 onboard were killed....

  • Air China Flight 129
    Air China Flight 129
    Air China Flight 129 was a flight from Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing, People's Republic of China to Gimhae International Airport, Busan, South Korea. On April 15, 2002, the jet on this route crashed into a hill near Busan, killing 129 of 166 on board...

  • Armavia Flight 967
    Armavia Flight 967
    Armavia Flight 967 was a flight operated by Armavia, the largest international airline of Armenia on May 3, 2006, from Yerevan in Armenia to Sochi, a Black Sea coastal resort city in Russia...



External links

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