Pakistan Begins Safety Inspections Of All Private Airlines After Crash

Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar issued the order for what he called a 'shake-down inspection' of all private aircraft by experts from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) set to begin on Monday.

Technical checking of the aircraft of all private airlines will help ensure safe journey for passengers, he said.

All airlines are still expected to continue operating during the inspection period, but will have to modify their flight schedules to accommodate for inspections.

Minister Mukhtar hopes that these new, more comprehensive inspections will prevent another deadly crash like the one that occurred last Friday near the Islamabad airport that claimed the lives of all 127 passengers.

CAA spokesman Pervez George told Agence France Presse (AFP) that no timeline has been established on the new safety checks.

 It is difficult to say how much time the inspectors will take to examine each plane and all its systems, he said.

We have asked all the private airlines to reschedule their domestic and international flights during the inspection so the passengers do not have to suffer.

And there have been a number of other near incidents in the last week alone. According to one Pakistani news source, another plane landing at the Karachi airport narrowly escaped a similar fate when one of its tires burst during landing causing the aircraft to tilt sharply to one side.

Another plane was delayed for technical reasons, that arose from a gas tank that began to leak. However, the airline claimed that the leak arose from over-fueling and not from a faulty or damaged gas-tank.

In July 2010 an Airbus jet from Karachi crashed into the hills near Islamabad, killing 152 people, in what is still the worst air disaster on Pakistani soil.