PIA failed to address weaknesses: EU
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: The European Union (EU) claims to have imposed the recent ban on Pakistan International Airlines into the EU countries after airline’s failure to address the weaknesses pointed out earlier.
Jan de Kok, EU Ambassador and head of delegation to Pakistan, informed PPPP Senator Enver Baig in a letter that SAFA (several safety assessments of foreign aircraft) inspections carried out on PIA aircraft operation to airports in the EU during 2006 revealed negative findings indicating safety deficiencies.
These initial findings, the letter that is a response to Baig’s queries on the issue, said were further corroborated by some incident reports involving PIA aircraft from some EU member states.
However, correspondence between PIA and PCAA (Pakistan civil aviation authority) on the one hand and the relevant authorities in the EU on the other did not result in a satisfactory response. “Weaknesses in PIA maintenance and airworthiness were not addressed satisfactorily,†the letter said.
It added that following a meeting of the Air Safety Committee (chaired by the EC and composed of all EU member states’ air safety authorities) which took place in early October 2006, European Commission Regulation 1543/2006 was adopted. This regulation required PIA and PCAA the submission of a remedial action plan
It added that since the adoption of EC regulation 1543/2006, the European Commission services met with PIA and PCAA on more than one occasion in Brussels. “Since October 2006 findings identified during subsequent SAFA inspections on PIA aircraft operations in and out of EU airports led to the conclusion that deficiencies were mainly related to maintenance problems,†the ambassador said, adding, “Following consultations between PIA and the European Commission, the latter accepted an invitation for a visit of an EU air safety team to Pakistan. This visit took place from 12-16 February 2007.â€ÂÂ
Following the visit to Pakistan, KOK said, the EU air safety committee unanimously expressed its opinion that a large part of the PIA fleet should be subject to an operating ban within the European Community under EC Regulation 2111/2005. In practical terms this operating ban affects all of PIA’s fleet except its Boeing 777s.
The ambassador added that the PIA was informed of the forthcoming operational restrictions by telephone on 23 February in order to give them prior warning and allow for re-scheduling of their flights. As a result of the opinion expressed by the EU air safety committee, according to the letter, the EC had no other choice but to adopt a decision to include PIA in the third update of the “European Community list of airlines banned in the European Unionâ€ÂÂ. The letter said that the reference to PIA reads as: “Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been subjected to an operational restriction whereby it is allowed to operate into the Community solely with its Boeing 777 aircraft.†This decision, it is said, was adopted officially on 5 March 2007.
On 5 March 2007 the relevant services of the European Commission sent a letter to the aviation authorities advising them that the relevant decision to restrict operation of PIA to the EC was taken on 5 March 2007; that the relevant revised regulation was going to be published in the official journal of the European Communities on 6 March; and that it will enter into force on 7 March 2007.
The ambassador hoped that the PIA and the CAA would be able to take all remedial measures necessary, this is not only for safety of passengers flying in and out of EU airports, but also for other passengers availing of PIA services.
Source: The News
Related Topic: EU set to ban most PIA Planes (Posted on February 23, 2007)
PIA was informed of EU restrictions on Feb 23: EU Ambassador
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So, PIA personnel under their schedule of powers & authorities to manage & represent the corp., invoked the restrictions/ban - They knew exactly what they were & are doing. The felony is premeditated. So who must be held responsible & pay for the awesome collapse? There is not a single case of any person being reprimanded, suspended, transferred or disciplined in any manner in all PIA deptts.! As a matter of interest, the ones w/o whom such a disaster would have been impossible, have been promoted and/or given more lucrative loot positions.
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Top guns’ lethargy led EC to ban PIA flights
By Abdul Sattar Khan
LAHORE: Though the European Commission restrictions on B747s and A310s PIA aircraft from flying to 27-nation European Union block seems to have been the result of hasty decision, ignoring many vital aspects, yet on various fronts the PIA also did not either bother to gauge the seriousness of the issue or the traditional bureaucratic inertia kept them at distance from the ground reality of being debarred from flying to the EU countries. 'The News' investigations revealed.
Exactly three months after receiving the warning in October last year from the European Commission (EC) to improve the situation lest PIA should face operational restrictions to fly to EU countries, the board meeting of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which was held in the last week of January this year, categorically expressed its grave concern “on the number of violations recorded regarding the PIA’s aircraft inspections, particularly during the months of October, November and December 2006,†documents available with The News revealed.
Taking the impending threat seriously, the CAA board directed the PIA “that PIA should take strict corrective measures in this regard and a proper report, comparing the decline in terms of statistics, should be submitted to the CAA board as soon as possibleâ€ÂÂ. The board further directed that “the PIA and CAA should have close discussion and liaison for setting required standards without any compromiseâ€ÂÂ. While, on the one hand, the CAA board directed the PIA to take strict corrective measures after observing grave violations regarding the PIA’s aircraft inspections, the CAA board appreciated the CAA efforts of carrying extensive ramp inspections of PIA aircraft to avoid the possible stoppages of PIA operations to the EU.
This clearly shows that PIA remained inactive to improve the situation despite receiving the warning from EC in October 2006, while in January this year the country’s supreme aviation regulatory body also categorically identified three months (October, November and December 2006) when glaring violations regarding PIA’s aircraft inspections were noticed by CAA. This also indicates that instead of taking corrective measures particularly after receiving the safety concerns from EC in October 2006, amazingly the situation further deteriorated during the next three months i.e. October, November and December 2006, as was identified by the CAA board. As a matter of fact, PIA should have been more vigilant after receiving the concerns of EC in October 2006, and the following months must have been result-oriented.
Interestingly the same board meeting of CAA was also attended by PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani being a board member while Defence Secretary Tariq Waseem Ghazi presided the meeting. Besides Kirmani, Director General Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Farooq Rehmatullah, Additional Secretary Defence Maj-Gen Mir Haider Ali Khan, Additional Secretary Military Finance Mohammed Izharul Haque, Deputy Director General CAA Air Vice Marshal Safdar Khan, Chairman British Oxygen Company Munawar Hamid, Executive Director Investment Capital & Securities Qasim Rabbani also attended the meeting.
In addition, seven CAA directors were also present there, to brief them about various vital aspects of the aviation of the country. They included Aurangzeb Khan, Director Special Project Zafar Mehmood, Director Administration; Pervez Bashir Nawaz Khan. Regional Director (North); Ch Pervez Akhtar, Director Communication and Estates; Air Commodore Tahir Ehsan Malik, Director Air Transport; Asif Bashir Ahmed, Director P&D; Vikram Singh Sodha, Director Works and two legal consultants.
While PIA failed to address the issue effectively at least in the eyes of the European Commission, the two other airlines (Thailand’s Phuket Air and African cargo carrier Das Air Cargo) which were also blacklisted by the EC, had been dropped from the list of banned airlines, after they addressed the EU’s safety concerns.
In fact, sources claimed that the issue was not taken seriously from the word go as when the EC conveyed its concerns to PIA on the e-mail address of one of the PIA’s General Managers last year. Due to unknown and unexplainable reasons, the said PIA GM did not refer the same to the high-ups of the PIA and allegedly kept the same with him till the time the EC reminded again for which the EC even showed the receipt of the e-mail of the said GM which, later on, was found to be deleted by someone from the staff.
Another irritating point for aviation industry was that the Senior Vice President, Engineering, PIA, Air Vice Marshal Ayaz Gul, is enjoying a special waiver from the Airworthiness Directorate of CAA, as he doesn’t meet the criteria laid down in Air Navigation Order of July 2004, to hold such an important position. AVM Gul was the same official from the PIA side who presented the Detailed Action Plan in February this year to EU Air Safety Committee (ASC) in Brussels to assure that the shortcomings pointed out by them were being addressed against a timeline.
Many aviation experts are convinced that the visit of a three-member delegation for “on-site fact-finding†EU Assessment Mission to Pakistan from February 12 to 16 2007 proved a turning point, because during this visit, the mission carried out a detailed scrutiny of PIA’s functions, processes and operational areas, following which a verbal debriefing was given by the three-member EU mission to both PIA and CAA. During this debriefing session, the major observations pertained to certain areas of Quality Assurance functions in the engineering department of the PIA which have to do with root-cause analysis to satisfy EU’s recently applied more stringent air safety criteria. Soon after the departure of the three-member EU Assessment Mission, a joint PIA-CAA team was invited for the quarterly meeting with EU Air Safety Committee (ASC) in Brussels on February 21, 2007. In the meeting, PIA’s Senior Vice President for Engineering presented a Detailed Action Plan to assure the committee that the shortcomings pointed out by them were being addressed against a timeline. No specific questions concerning ‘deficiencies’ were made or the possibility of restrictions even hinted at, as the PIA was told that it will be intimated about the outcome of meeting in 10 days. However, it was the shocking surprise for PIA as much before the official notification and without any communication to PIA, the news regarding the impending ban on PIA flights were released worldwide. Interestingly, the PIA has not yet received the official notification in this regard. Another interesting development shocked PIA when even no official notification was issued to PIA nor any communication were made to them, Germany pre-empted the EU verdict and single-handedly revoked PIA’s permission to fly its A310s and B747s to German destinations.
This hasty and unilateral decision by Germany, which holds the presidency of the EU, overrules another important reality that EU regulations concerning air safety are still evolving and its procedures for evaluating airlines are not widely known event to its member countries. It is understandable that the EU have only a year back introduced certain more stringent air safety criteria for aircraft using airspace of its member countries and have already imposed restrictions to over 100 airline operators on their operations in the EU countries. The EU’s air safety regulations are still evolving and its procedures and precedents for evaluating airlines are not widely known, with resultant potential for miscommunication and misperceptions.
There are many aviation experts and the insiders even claimed to have traced the origin of the dispute ever since the purchase of the Boeing 777 aircraft by the PIA and are convinced that Airbus Industrie’s financial crisis has become a possible motive behind this decision. The European plane-maker Airbus plunged into its first ever operating loss in 2006. The current financial crisis of Airbus Industrie is threatening 10,000 jobs cut and the replacement of older aircraft by airlines with A321. Despite delivering a record 434 aircraft last year, the parent company EADS conceded Airbus made an operating loss of 572 million Euros (US$752 million) compared with an operating profit of 2.3 billion euros in 2005. Airbus is expected to display another substantial loss in 2007, owing to an array of costly initiatives and a worsening business environment. The main costs in 2007 would arise from a controversial restructuring programme announced by Airbus last week, overruns from its much-delayed A380 super jumbo project and charges for the launch of its mid-range A350 XWB. The increased research and development costs and a fall of dollar against the euro would also undercut the company.
PIA Version: To begin with, in pursuance of taking the matter seriously, a high-powered PIA team lead by Chairman Tariq Kirmani held an emergency meeting at the EU Air Transport Headquarters, Brussels on March 2, 2007. PIA presented a detailed briefing, explaining several additional measures that PIA had embarked upon (even before EU saga began) which includes fleet modernization, spinning off non-core businesses (such as hotels) and formation of joint ventures with internationally reputable companies for ramp handling, flight kitchen, Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO).
In this specific meeting, The EU Air Safety Committee (ASC) appreciated the efforts of PIA and emphasized that PIA’s operations in EU countries are not banned, but only operating restrictions are being temporarily applied to enable PIA carry out measures as per action plan submitted by PIA.
PIA’s Maintenance and Engineering Department is certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and has ISO 9000 certification and is steadily involved in getting more ISO and Series Certifications. In order to give safety the priority and importance it rightfully deserved, this division has been upgraded to a departmental level.
PIA further clarified that CAA which clears and certifies aircraft worthiness and licensing of engineers, strictly follows standards and recommended practices that in turn is subject to period audits. So that no laxity in safety standards occurs. PIA’s Engineering and Maintenance has a valid, official certification of European Aviation Safety Association (EASA) which was revalidated for the second time, only a few months ago. This fact alone is enough to dismiss the EU judgment on PIA that talks about “safety concernsâ€ÂÂ.
The PIA is also currently registered by IATA through its Operational Safety Audit (OSA), being amongst the 63 airlines out of 300 airlines to have achieved this distinction. Major PIA departments also have ISO 9000 certification. In this background, PIA’s aircraft are eligible to fly and indeed fly to most parts of the world, without any hindrance whatsoever.
PIA has been operating aircraft with average age of more than 20 years, as the PIA Engineering is concentrating more on airworthiness and safety issues of its time-tested and technically reliable fleet. Encouraged with PIA’s new fleet modernization plan to bring down the average age of the fleet to respectable 10 years, Engineering management in collaboration with CAA have increased their technical surveillance. More time on ground is being given to aircraft, refurbishment plan for B747/A310 aircraft has been chalked out and total refurbishment of the entire fleet will be accomplished by the mid of year 2007. The first refurbishment of B747 aircraft has been completed and was appreciated by both CAA-Pakistan and CAA-UK inspectors under SAFA checklist.
PIA’s aircraft are certified for airworthiness by CAA Pakistan, which under Article 33 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention of 1944) shall be recognized as valid by the other contracting states, provided that the requirements under which such certificates or licenses are issued or rendered valid are equal to or above the minimum standards which may be established from time to time, pursuant to the Chicago Convention. PIA not only fulfills that, but is subjected to CAA’s oversight, which itself complies with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and was cleared by ICAO during the last Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (IUSOAP).
Recently as in the first week of March, PIA successfully underwent an audit for the revalidation of its certification. And the revalidated certification will be effective after the first one expires in June 2007. It is matter of great pride for PIA as in this year’s certification even the auditors were surprised as they had on record stated that they had not seen such a level of compliance as they witnessed in PIA for a long time.
Meanwhile, the PIA has already undertaken measures to mitigate the effect of the operational restrictions and assures its customers that it will endeavor to minimize any dislocation and resultant inconvenience that may be caused to them and further assures them that it would continue to provide them safe and reliable air travel.
Source: The News (March 20, 2007)
By Abdul Sattar Khan
LAHORE: Though the European Commission restrictions on B747s and A310s PIA aircraft from flying to 27-nation European Union block seems to have been the result of hasty decision, ignoring many vital aspects, yet on various fronts the PIA also did not either bother to gauge the seriousness of the issue or the traditional bureaucratic inertia kept them at distance from the ground reality of being debarred from flying to the EU countries. 'The News' investigations revealed.
Exactly three months after receiving the warning in October last year from the European Commission (EC) to improve the situation lest PIA should face operational restrictions to fly to EU countries, the board meeting of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which was held in the last week of January this year, categorically expressed its grave concern “on the number of violations recorded regarding the PIA’s aircraft inspections, particularly during the months of October, November and December 2006,†documents available with The News revealed.
Taking the impending threat seriously, the CAA board directed the PIA “that PIA should take strict corrective measures in this regard and a proper report, comparing the decline in terms of statistics, should be submitted to the CAA board as soon as possibleâ€ÂÂ. The board further directed that “the PIA and CAA should have close discussion and liaison for setting required standards without any compromiseâ€ÂÂ. While, on the one hand, the CAA board directed the PIA to take strict corrective measures after observing grave violations regarding the PIA’s aircraft inspections, the CAA board appreciated the CAA efforts of carrying extensive ramp inspections of PIA aircraft to avoid the possible stoppages of PIA operations to the EU.
This clearly shows that PIA remained inactive to improve the situation despite receiving the warning from EC in October 2006, while in January this year the country’s supreme aviation regulatory body also categorically identified three months (October, November and December 2006) when glaring violations regarding PIA’s aircraft inspections were noticed by CAA. This also indicates that instead of taking corrective measures particularly after receiving the safety concerns from EC in October 2006, amazingly the situation further deteriorated during the next three months i.e. October, November and December 2006, as was identified by the CAA board. As a matter of fact, PIA should have been more vigilant after receiving the concerns of EC in October 2006, and the following months must have been result-oriented.
Interestingly the same board meeting of CAA was also attended by PIA Chairman Tariq Kirmani being a board member while Defence Secretary Tariq Waseem Ghazi presided the meeting. Besides Kirmani, Director General Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Farooq Rehmatullah, Additional Secretary Defence Maj-Gen Mir Haider Ali Khan, Additional Secretary Military Finance Mohammed Izharul Haque, Deputy Director General CAA Air Vice Marshal Safdar Khan, Chairman British Oxygen Company Munawar Hamid, Executive Director Investment Capital & Securities Qasim Rabbani also attended the meeting.
In addition, seven CAA directors were also present there, to brief them about various vital aspects of the aviation of the country. They included Aurangzeb Khan, Director Special Project Zafar Mehmood, Director Administration; Pervez Bashir Nawaz Khan. Regional Director (North); Ch Pervez Akhtar, Director Communication and Estates; Air Commodore Tahir Ehsan Malik, Director Air Transport; Asif Bashir Ahmed, Director P&D; Vikram Singh Sodha, Director Works and two legal consultants.
While PIA failed to address the issue effectively at least in the eyes of the European Commission, the two other airlines (Thailand’s Phuket Air and African cargo carrier Das Air Cargo) which were also blacklisted by the EC, had been dropped from the list of banned airlines, after they addressed the EU’s safety concerns.
In fact, sources claimed that the issue was not taken seriously from the word go as when the EC conveyed its concerns to PIA on the e-mail address of one of the PIA’s General Managers last year. Due to unknown and unexplainable reasons, the said PIA GM did not refer the same to the high-ups of the PIA and allegedly kept the same with him till the time the EC reminded again for which the EC even showed the receipt of the e-mail of the said GM which, later on, was found to be deleted by someone from the staff.
Another irritating point for aviation industry was that the Senior Vice President, Engineering, PIA, Air Vice Marshal Ayaz Gul, is enjoying a special waiver from the Airworthiness Directorate of CAA, as he doesn’t meet the criteria laid down in Air Navigation Order of July 2004, to hold such an important position. AVM Gul was the same official from the PIA side who presented the Detailed Action Plan in February this year to EU Air Safety Committee (ASC) in Brussels to assure that the shortcomings pointed out by them were being addressed against a timeline.
Many aviation experts are convinced that the visit of a three-member delegation for “on-site fact-finding†EU Assessment Mission to Pakistan from February 12 to 16 2007 proved a turning point, because during this visit, the mission carried out a detailed scrutiny of PIA’s functions, processes and operational areas, following which a verbal debriefing was given by the three-member EU mission to both PIA and CAA. During this debriefing session, the major observations pertained to certain areas of Quality Assurance functions in the engineering department of the PIA which have to do with root-cause analysis to satisfy EU’s recently applied more stringent air safety criteria. Soon after the departure of the three-member EU Assessment Mission, a joint PIA-CAA team was invited for the quarterly meeting with EU Air Safety Committee (ASC) in Brussels on February 21, 2007. In the meeting, PIA’s Senior Vice President for Engineering presented a Detailed Action Plan to assure the committee that the shortcomings pointed out by them were being addressed against a timeline. No specific questions concerning ‘deficiencies’ were made or the possibility of restrictions even hinted at, as the PIA was told that it will be intimated about the outcome of meeting in 10 days. However, it was the shocking surprise for PIA as much before the official notification and without any communication to PIA, the news regarding the impending ban on PIA flights were released worldwide. Interestingly, the PIA has not yet received the official notification in this regard. Another interesting development shocked PIA when even no official notification was issued to PIA nor any communication were made to them, Germany pre-empted the EU verdict and single-handedly revoked PIA’s permission to fly its A310s and B747s to German destinations.
This hasty and unilateral decision by Germany, which holds the presidency of the EU, overrules another important reality that EU regulations concerning air safety are still evolving and its procedures for evaluating airlines are not widely known event to its member countries. It is understandable that the EU have only a year back introduced certain more stringent air safety criteria for aircraft using airspace of its member countries and have already imposed restrictions to over 100 airline operators on their operations in the EU countries. The EU’s air safety regulations are still evolving and its procedures and precedents for evaluating airlines are not widely known, with resultant potential for miscommunication and misperceptions.
There are many aviation experts and the insiders even claimed to have traced the origin of the dispute ever since the purchase of the Boeing 777 aircraft by the PIA and are convinced that Airbus Industrie’s financial crisis has become a possible motive behind this decision. The European plane-maker Airbus plunged into its first ever operating loss in 2006. The current financial crisis of Airbus Industrie is threatening 10,000 jobs cut and the replacement of older aircraft by airlines with A321. Despite delivering a record 434 aircraft last year, the parent company EADS conceded Airbus made an operating loss of 572 million Euros (US$752 million) compared with an operating profit of 2.3 billion euros in 2005. Airbus is expected to display another substantial loss in 2007, owing to an array of costly initiatives and a worsening business environment. The main costs in 2007 would arise from a controversial restructuring programme announced by Airbus last week, overruns from its much-delayed A380 super jumbo project and charges for the launch of its mid-range A350 XWB. The increased research and development costs and a fall of dollar against the euro would also undercut the company.
PIA Version: To begin with, in pursuance of taking the matter seriously, a high-powered PIA team lead by Chairman Tariq Kirmani held an emergency meeting at the EU Air Transport Headquarters, Brussels on March 2, 2007. PIA presented a detailed briefing, explaining several additional measures that PIA had embarked upon (even before EU saga began) which includes fleet modernization, spinning off non-core businesses (such as hotels) and formation of joint ventures with internationally reputable companies for ramp handling, flight kitchen, Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO).
In this specific meeting, The EU Air Safety Committee (ASC) appreciated the efforts of PIA and emphasized that PIA’s operations in EU countries are not banned, but only operating restrictions are being temporarily applied to enable PIA carry out measures as per action plan submitted by PIA.
PIA’s Maintenance and Engineering Department is certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and has ISO 9000 certification and is steadily involved in getting more ISO and Series Certifications. In order to give safety the priority and importance it rightfully deserved, this division has been upgraded to a departmental level.
PIA further clarified that CAA which clears and certifies aircraft worthiness and licensing of engineers, strictly follows standards and recommended practices that in turn is subject to period audits. So that no laxity in safety standards occurs. PIA’s Engineering and Maintenance has a valid, official certification of European Aviation Safety Association (EASA) which was revalidated for the second time, only a few months ago. This fact alone is enough to dismiss the EU judgment on PIA that talks about “safety concernsâ€ÂÂ.
The PIA is also currently registered by IATA through its Operational Safety Audit (OSA), being amongst the 63 airlines out of 300 airlines to have achieved this distinction. Major PIA departments also have ISO 9000 certification. In this background, PIA’s aircraft are eligible to fly and indeed fly to most parts of the world, without any hindrance whatsoever.
PIA has been operating aircraft with average age of more than 20 years, as the PIA Engineering is concentrating more on airworthiness and safety issues of its time-tested and technically reliable fleet. Encouraged with PIA’s new fleet modernization plan to bring down the average age of the fleet to respectable 10 years, Engineering management in collaboration with CAA have increased their technical surveillance. More time on ground is being given to aircraft, refurbishment plan for B747/A310 aircraft has been chalked out and total refurbishment of the entire fleet will be accomplished by the mid of year 2007. The first refurbishment of B747 aircraft has been completed and was appreciated by both CAA-Pakistan and CAA-UK inspectors under SAFA checklist.
PIA’s aircraft are certified for airworthiness by CAA Pakistan, which under Article 33 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention of 1944) shall be recognized as valid by the other contracting states, provided that the requirements under which such certificates or licenses are issued or rendered valid are equal to or above the minimum standards which may be established from time to time, pursuant to the Chicago Convention. PIA not only fulfills that, but is subjected to CAA’s oversight, which itself complies with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and was cleared by ICAO during the last Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (IUSOAP).
Recently as in the first week of March, PIA successfully underwent an audit for the revalidation of its certification. And the revalidated certification will be effective after the first one expires in June 2007. It is matter of great pride for PIA as in this year’s certification even the auditors were surprised as they had on record stated that they had not seen such a level of compliance as they witnessed in PIA for a long time.
Meanwhile, the PIA has already undertaken measures to mitigate the effect of the operational restrictions and assures its customers that it will endeavor to minimize any dislocation and resultant inconvenience that may be caused to them and further assures them that it would continue to provide them safe and reliable air travel.
Source: The News (March 20, 2007)
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PIA did not make any submissions (maint/remedial schedules) for the A310 & B747 to EU in 2007. Since 2006 PIA failed to follow up on the on the mandatory requirement for the two a/c types left out. EU fact finding visit in Feb '07 therefore became essential. At the 11 hour, having had their laptops stolen, PIA managed to lodge B777 documentation to the EC.