PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Discuss issues and news related to PIA, Pakistani airlines and Pakistan's civil & military aviation.
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

Minister in-charge of Aviation Division said that Airbus A310 bearing registration number AP-BAQ was sold for €47,500 to a museum in Leipzig, Germany with the approval of the former CEO Bernd Hildenbrand.

He said that some discrepancies were found in the application of the PPRA rules 2004 in the sale of the aircraft and an internal inquiry of this matter was carried out in which Hildenbrand was found guilty of violations. Hildenbrand was terminated from the PIA. The FIA is reportedly conducting an inquiry into the said matter and its findings are awaited.

Source: http://nation.com.pk/national/10-Oct-20 ... es-na-told
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed informed the senate today that:

Image
The Airbus was twenty-seven years old.

Image
A British firm hired the aircraft for ten days, during the tenure of German CEO.

Image
The aircraft was used in shooting of a film/movie.

Image
The museum expressed interest in buying the aircraft.

Image
Action was taken against the CEO and he was removed from the job.

Image
FIA is investigating the case to determine individuals invoked.

Image
The report will be present to the parliament after completion of FIA investigation.

Abbas
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed informed the senate today that:

Image
The Airbus was twenty-seven years old.
Actually, the aircraft i.e. PIA Airbus A310-300 registration AP-BEQ was built in 1992 making it twenty-four years old when it left Pakistan for Germany via Malta in 2016.

Abbas
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

Image
Today, Chairman PIA informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that PIA Airbus A310-300 aircraft structure was sold not its engines.

Image
The Chairman PAC questioned that now how can engines be brought back to Pakistan when the aircraft is gone?

Image
The Chairman PAC also asked National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit its report on this aircraft issue.

Abbas
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

The disposal of a big item like this PIA Airbus A310 without following proper procedures/rules could not have gone unnoticed.

I wonder how many smaller items in PIA inventory in similar way get disposed off without procedures/rules and their disposal goes unnoticed?

Abbas
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

According to PTV News, the British firm paid USD 210,000 for using PIA aircraft for 'Operation Entebbe' movie shooting in Malta.

According to following APP news report, the company that hired PIA Airbus A310 for movie shooting in Malta paid 210,000 Euros for the aircraft.

But, the report does not clarify who received this payment and who approved usage of the aircraft in movie shooting.
FIA conducting inquiry into scam of PIA aircraft sale

October 10, 2017

ISLAMABAD, Oct 10 (APP):
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed on Tuesday said that Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is conducting inquiry regarding sale of an aircraft to a museum in Germany and non-payment of its price to the airline.

He stated this while responding to a Calling Attention Notice in the National Assembly regarding missing aircraft of Pakistan International Airline used in a film made in Malta.

The minister said that a company hired the aircraft for making a film in Malta and its rent 2,10,000 Euro was paid to the aircraft. Later, he said that former CEO PIA hailing from Germany sold this aircraft to a a museum in Germany but payment was not made to the PIA.

He said that issue was raised in the Senate and a committee has been constituted to inquire into the matter and report to the House.Along with, he said that FIA is also conducting inquiry about it to know the actual reasons behind such irregularity.

Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbassi said that inquiry should also involve all PIA officials involved in this sale agreement and report to be submitted to the relevant committee within one month.

Source: http://www.app.com.pk/fia-conducting-in ... raft-sale/
Abbas
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
faisal-777
Registered Member
Posts: 821
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:02 pm

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by faisal-777 »

This fiasco says a lot about the administrative state Pakistan is in right now. An aircraft leaves the country for unknown purpose, with deal done by people not known yet and no one has clue or audacity to find out what happened. A slap on face of each of 200 million of us !
Once you have tasted flight, you will ever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward - Leonardo Da Vinci
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

Responding to a calling attention, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad said that the Federal Investigation Agency is carrying out investigation into the matter of use of a PIA plane in a film made in Malta wherein the struggle of Palestinians was negatively portrayed.

He informed the House that the PIA Airbus A310 was rented out to a British film making company for which the national flag carrier received over twenty million rupees.

The Chair directed FIA to present its report within a month before the relevant standing committee.

Source: http://www.radio.gov.pk/10-Oct-2017/tex ... n-2000-hrs

Abbas
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told the committee that a Malta-based film production company had hired the plane against a rent of $210,000. Later the plane was directly flown from Malta to a museum in Germany. He told the committee that the foreign adviser of the PIA who had finalised the deal was also an employee of the company which was purchasing the plane.

Source: http://dailytimes.com.pk/pakistan/11-Oc ... to-germany
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

PIA considering selling off ‘missing’ Airbus

FIA probing German ex-CEO’s role in ‘sale’ of A310 aircraft to German aerospace museum

By Iftikhar A. Khan

ISLAMABAD: The national flag carrier is considering legal options to sell off an Airbus plane that wound up in Germany under mysterious circumstances, a senior Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) official said on Tuesday.

“We are trying to find a solution to the problem. The Airbus is not missing; it is currently in Germany. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is conducting a probe into the entire episode, which is yet to be completed,” PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar told Dawn.

He said a tender floated earlier could not materialise and that now, the flag carrier was weighing options to sell the plane through a transparent tendering process. “It will be carried out strictly in accordance with Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and all formalities will be fulfilled,” he remarked.

The controversy over the dubious sale of the ‘missing’ A-310 aircraft recently echoed in both houses of parliament.

On Sept 12, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad told the Senate that the former acting chief executive officer (CEO) Bernd Hildenbrand had taken the plane with him when he left Pakistan.

A senior PIA official, however, said the plane had been chartered by a British company for the purposes of a film, which was shot in Malta, following which the aircraft flew to Germany.

“The plane had already completed its flying hours and was no longer airworthy. It’s a 30-year-old aircraft and had already been grounded,” he said, adding that the film company paid PIA over $200,000 as rent for the plane.

The Airbus was then flown directly to the Leipzig Halle Airport museum in Germany.

Both the plane and the former CEO are now in Germany and it still remains unclear how Hildenbrand’s name was removed from the Exit Control List (ECL) while an FIA probe was ongoing.

A source privy to the development said that the German ex-CEO of PIA had not only floated a tender to sell, but also hired a foreign consultant — who also held shares in the museum that was interested in purchasing the airplane.

Sources said Hilderbrand had secretly negotiated the sale of the aircraft with the museum, without seeking permission from the PIA board.

The museum had expressed an interest in purchasing the aircraft for “training and exhibition purposes” in Dec 2016 and had written to PIA in April this year, reaffirming that it was still interested in the deal.

The letter clearly stated that the Airbus was parked at its premises without any parking fee, but a source said that the fees were worth more than the estimated value of the retired plane.

An internal PIA inquiry has already found three of its top officials guilty of gross violations in this matter.

In December last year, the PIA Board of Directors formed a two-member inquiry committee that, found Hildenbrand, Director Procurement and Logistics Air Commodore Imran Akhtar Khan and Technical Consultant Helmut Bachhofner guilty of causing financial loss of over Rs500 million to the national carrier.

The report mentions that the entire sale process was based on mala fide intentions, as the original tendering process was tampered to ensure a single bidder was chosen. The probe committee’s 34-page report says that the price at which the perfectly functioning A-310 was sold was lower even than its scrap price.

“A channel was designed by the persons responsible for the actions under inquiry to phase out A-310 aircrafts at present and other assets at a later stage. The entire team involved could not have achieved this objective without connivance of each other and planting of Mr Helmut [Bachhofner].”

The consultant, the commission’s findings revealed, was a shareholder and partner in the only two companies that participated in the bid.

The committee also found it odd that although the A-310 was been handed over to the German company, there was no payment against it.

“The purchase price offered by M/s Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG was not to be received in cash terms, instead it was to be settled on account of marketing and support expenses for a newly-planned flight route passing through Leipzig/Halle Airport to New York. The board hasn’t approved the route of Karachi-Leipzig-New York.”


Source: DAWN (October 18, 2017)
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
User avatar
uzkt01
Registered Member
Posts: 238
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2016 2:49 pm

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by uzkt01 »

Hildenbrand was made scapegoat in all this A310 drama. He had a vision for PIA and knew what he was doing unlike the current CEO.
NL
Registered Member
Posts: 132
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:38 am

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by NL »

Now all there's left is to wait for the airport to take pia to court in germany over non-payment of parking fees ...and it's gone!
arshad.altaf
Registered Member
Posts: 718
Joined: Fri Dec 25, 2015 8:24 am

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by arshad.altaf »

Who were the other two found guilty? What were their names, if they are in Pakistan, has any action being taken against them? This drama certainly has many twists.

Arshad
User avatar
Abbas Ali
Site Admin
Posts: 52155
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:52 pm
Location: Pakistan

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by Abbas Ali »

Image

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has announced to investigate the sale of a PIA airliner 'for peanuts'.

I think it's airline's Airbus A310-300 registration AP-BEQ currently parked at Leipzig Halle Airport, Germany.

Abbas
Dil Dil Pakistan... Jaan Jaan Pakistan

See you at:
Image
pk363
Registered Member
Posts: 777
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:07 am
Location: Dubai, UAE

Re: PIA's A310 to go to Leipzig

Post by pk363 »

Senate committee to probe this issue

https://www.dawn.com/news/1366403/senat ... craft-case