PIA ..........Great People to fly with ?

[pkjet]

Read this excerpt from Mr Musharraf's homepage :

-----------------------------------------


As a citizen of Pakistan may I please request you to investigate the actions of PIA and some senior politicians. My wife and son travelled from Islamabad to London on 3rd July 2005. I came to know that their flight was delayed by two hours. I understand that the passengers were told that their was a technical fault. On investigating the issue I came to know that plane they were supposed to fly had been flown to Karachi instead. Reason for this seems to be bizzare. Some politicians who wanted to fly to Karachi didnt want to go in an old plane. Thus they took the London bound new plane to Karachi instead. Lives of more than 600 people were put at risk on two long haul flights (going to London and returning back). I am told that the plane was in a very bad condition. Since these politicians wanted to fly for less than two hours in comfort they cared little about children, women and men flying to London and for those who would have returned on the same plane to Islamabad. PIA and these politicians should be charged with following and punished appropiately. One, they changed planes from a new one to an old unfit plane. Two, fraud deception and lying to passenger that their was a technical fault. Three, putting at risk lives of innocent public. I hope to hear from you with strong action against these PIA officals and politicians. Yours sincerely, Dr Tayyeb Tahir

Source : http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/T ... sList.aspx

[pkjet]

I bet the plane in question was an Air Universal B747-200 ??

[kamalla]

I bet the plane in question was an Air Universal B747-200 ??

Well, according to the response by the office of the President's Press Secretary, the aircraft in question was AP-BFX, which had suffered a bird strike and was taken out of service until the next day. The passengers on the London bound flight therefore had to travel on AP-BAK.... which is apparently the aircraft in really bad condition.

[smarties]

AP-BAK is the worst aircraft in PIAs fleet, the cabin is falling apart.

BTW did anyone in KHI see PK787 depart at about 11am. I don't think i have seen a plane so low at take off over the house, the noise was unbelievable.

[SENIOR]

It does seem strange how some pax will jump to some strange conclusions - you dont know who to believe ?
surely someone with some visual accuity can see the difference between a b743 nd the combi !!

pls refer to prof bunsen's quote below -

[mohammed younis]

Iv been watching air crash investigations and there was an episode where the roof of a boeing just blows of in flights, the plane had 9 flights thats day, and the cause was wear and tear..

just makes you think how old our ap-bak is!!

[AP-BGL]

Well, those people are really Great who still fly PIA after that event and PIA management and senior authorities are even more greater than those people who dont take notice of such kind of stupid activities.

[Abbas Ali]

PIA's response also appears on President's website.

Following is PIA's response (I also remember AP-BFX bird strike incident happening last year)

The Response

Dear Dr. Tayyeb Tahir,

Your query was forwarded to the Pakistan International Airlines. Their response is as follows:

"On 3rd July, 2005, flight PK785 was scheduled to operate from Islamabad to London at 1045LT with B747-300 aircraft having registration number AP-BFX. This aircraft had earlier arrived from London ex PK786/03 July 05. Upon arrival at Islamabad, its Engine# 4 was found Bird-Hit, therefore, the aircraft was declared technical.

In view of un-serviceability of afore-mentioned aircraft, it was decided by our Flight operations that B-747 Combi aircraft having registration number AP-BAK, which was scheduled to operate from Islamabad to Karachi flight PK301/03 July 05 would operate on PK785/3rd July 05. Due to this change of aircraft, this Islamabad - London sector flight was delayed by 01 hours 45 minutes and departed at 1230LT.

Consequent to the above decision, the Islamabad to Karachi flight PK301/3rd July 05 was operated by a B-737 aircraft having reduced capacity of only 118 passengers. The left over passengers traveled by PK 309/03rd July 05.

The B-747-300 aircraft, which was Bird-Hit became serviceable on the next day and operated the Islamabad-Karachi sector scheduled flight PK301/04th July 05.

The complaint of Dr. Tayyeb Tahir appears to be an outcome of some misunderstanding. It is evident that the aircraft, supposed to fly to London, was not flown to Karachi. In fact, it had developed a technical fault and was declared un-serviceable. After serviceability this aircraft operated to Karachi next day. Thus the apprehension of Dr. Tahir that this aircraft was flown Karachi to transport some politicians who did not want to travel in an old plane is misperceived."

Sincerely,
Office of the Press secretary to President

[ord]

Iv been watching air crash investigations and there was an episode where the roof of a boeing just blows of in flights, the plane had 9 flights thats day, and the cause was wear and tear..

just makes you think how old our ap-bak is!!

Mohammed Younis,

I don't want to sound rude, but you need get some facts straight before making a serious allegation like that. The nature of AP-BAK's operation is much different from the 737 incident that you are talking about.

The accident you are refering to was an Aloha Air 737 and it occured because the unusal nature of the operations on which its was used. Aloha used it as an island hopper service, linkin the Hawaiian Islands. The plane itself was not that old. It did however rack up more cycles than the 737s are certified for due to the short nature of the flights and the number of times it took-off and landed every day (9 cycles per day). If I remember correctly, the 737 pressure bulkheads are certified for up to 35, 000 cycles and the plane would have exceeded that in 11-12 years at the rate they were using it.

High number of cylces has never been issue with PIA's widebodies and is not going to be an issue for PIA's 742 combis.