I don't agree with this point of view. Ilyushin Il-76 is one of the most successful and reliable heavy lift cargo transporters in service around the world with various civilian and military operators.General Secretary of the Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association (Palpa) Capt T.M. Rabbani said that IL-76 aircraft did not enjoy a good record globally as far as safety was concerned.
Source: DAWN news report (November 29)
The Il-76 crash in Karachi is apparently related to aircraft's maintenance work. Seems like a catastrophic engine exlposion ignited large fire which engulfed large section of aircraft wing/fuselage.
This makes it clear why the Il-76 landed in Karachi. Probably the tents were purchased from some Pakistani tent manufacturing company or probably these tents were extra in stock of some relief work agency in Pakistan which decided to shift these tents to Sudan for some sort of relief work in that country.A representative of the SAPS (Shaheen Air Port Services) said that the cargo comprising relief goods tents, etc, were loaded onto the plane in the city and the aircraft had also been refuelled.
Source: DAWN news report (November 29)
I don't think many privately owned airlines have cargo aircraft with cargo load capacity of Il-76.While Pakistan has a large fleet of cargo planes, with Karachi being one of its biggest hubs, it is not immediately known as to why someone was bringing in the aircraft from the UAE to Karachi to airlift the cargo to Khartoum, which would be relatively expensive.
Source: DAWN news report (November 29)
The Pakistani company with large size cargo aircraft that I know is Rayyan Air with two Boeing 747 freighters.
Not sure, but I think Vision Air also has a leased foreign registered Il-76 freighter.
Royal Airlines used to operate at least one foreign registered Il-76 but it crashed in Afghanistan some years ago.
Pakistan's three major known airlines i.e. PIA, Shaheen Air and AirBlue do not have freighter aircraft of any size in their fleet.
Abbas