PALPA advises pilots not to operate flights over safety violation; PIA suspends Karachi operations

• With this safety approach, it is better for PIA to stop operations before becoming COVID-19 carrier not only in Pakistan but for rest of the world, industry experts

KARACHI: Lack of coordination between federal and provincial authorities over the implementation of preventive measures to avert the spread of COVID-19 has forced Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to suspend its operations from Karachi.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Air Line Pilots Association (PALPA) has advised its members not to operate any flight until further notice in order to express its resentment over compromising safety and violated SOP to avoid COVID-19 threats during recently operated humanitarian flights by PIA management.

With the claim to have strict enforcement of preventive measures including disinfection procedures for aircraft, PIA spokesman confirmed that CEO national flag carrier had ordered to suspend flight operations from Karachi until the coordination was not done between federal and provincial authorities over the implementation of preventive measures to avert the spread of COVID-19.

However, a novel approach to disinfect the return leg from Gilgit-Baltistan region, which has growing number of COVID-19 patients, was highlighted by a flight captain in his debrief.

He stated that the aircraft was disinfected by a homemade solution through used and dirty clearing cloth instead of Lysol spray and when asked, the engineering department refused to provide a bottle of Lysol spray with a rationale that it was out of stock.

PIA Spokesman further said that provincial authority was informed three hours before the arrival of empty leg flight but the staff of Sindh health department despite the directives insisted to bring flight captains in quarantine; adding that CEO PIA expressed his concerns over the attitude showed by the staff of Sindh health department, which the spokesman termed against the instructions.

“They are national heros, who are performing their duties despite COVID-19 threats in order to bring stranded Pakistanis home. PIA doesn’t compromise the safety of its Heros at any cost,” spokesman quoted as saying by CEO PIA. Therefore, it has been decided to suspend flight operations from Karachi until the coordination was not done between federal and provincial authorities over the implementation of preventive measures to avert the spread of COVID-19.

Industry experts lauded the decision taken by CEO to suspend flight operations from Karachi, advising him to stop operations from rest of the stations.

“With this safety approach, it is better for PIA to stop operations before becoming COVID-19 carrier not only in Pakistan but for rest of the world,” they said.

The national flag carrier has been given go-ahead to partially resume its flight operations to help repatriate citizens stranded abroad. In first phase, PIA initially flew stranded passengers from Canada and the UK who were meant to travel to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Limited flight operations resumed from Toronto on April 3, while operations from the UK kicked off on April 4.

PIA spokesman in his early statement issued on April 1 claimed that once the flights land, all passengers would be tested in the airport lounges and transferred to a local hotel for six hours and only those passengers who were declared negative would be allowed to proceed home and rest of others would be quarantined.

Furthermore, he also claimed that all flights would be regularly disinfected and airline would take all protocols to ensure its crew's safety very seriously.

However, flight captains in debriefs exposed the tall claims of the PIA management over safety arrangements to avert the COVID-19 threats.

Captain of flight PK9702 (Manchester to Islamabad) in his debrief expressed reservations over number of shortcomings as against the airline operational SOPs, saying that no masks, gloves and hand sanitizers were provided to the cockpit crew on arrival. Later, masks and hand sanitizers were given after much insistence by the crew and they were told that gloves were not available. In a sheer violation of SOP drafted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during flight, no ‘AFT’ row of seats were designated for the purpose of quarantine area and only one sanitizer was provided to the cabin crew.

Similarly, captain of flight PK781 (Islamabad to Toronto) complained that over 40 percent passengers were boarded in the aircraft without any face mask and no scanners to monitor body temperature was provided onboard. Later the face masks were given on the insistence during telephonic conversation with PIA management, causing 34 minutes delay departure. Similar views were expressed by the captain of flight PK782 and others.

Meanwhile, PALPA while taking notice of compromising safety and violation of SOP to avoid COVID-19 threats during these recently operated on humanitarian flights, advised its members not to operate any flight until further notice; raising doubts over PIA flights operations from Islamabad and Lahore.