PIA chairman has ordered an inquiry into the crash landing of Lahore bound ATR-42-500 on May 30. The PIA spokesman Sultan Hassan said that an official inquiry had been ordered into the incident to determine the cause and whether it was due to equipment failure or human error. According to reliable sources, it appears a case of equipment failure.
Captain Torab Ali and First Officer Asim Aziz were flying the aircraft bearing registration No AP-BHOe. According to initial reports, the aircraft's nose, left gear, and the fuselage have been heavily damaged. While the PIA authorities may be feeling a little hot behind the collar, the landing however was described in two words by one truly happy teenaged traveller who talking to this scribe as "really cool".
The Spokesman sounded elated about the fact that nobody had been hurt but did not have a convincing response when asked why PIA had not volunteered the details of the incident to the general public and the media, as would be expected from any responsible professional corporation.
The passengers of the 48-seater PIA turbo prop aircraft got a scare of their lives when their plane, instead of landing gently skidded off the runway, raced another 2,000 feet or so rubbing its nose in dirt, and slid across two feet deep drainage ditch before coming to a shockingly abrupt halt on the left edge of the parallel runaway. Fortunately, no passenger or crewmember received any injury except the pilots reportedly suffering from bruises.