Ministry of Defence has taken a strong note of the clauses of Air Navigation Order (ANO), issued by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which provides undue space to operators when it comes to flight duty time limitations.
According to details, available on Wednesday, of the meeting held with PIA's management and Pakistan Airline Pilots' Association (PALPA) in Islamabad last week, officials also ordered probe into the waivers given by the CAA to PIA over operating flights against safety standards violating CAA's ANO 4 and PALPA-PIA working agreement.
Secretary Ministry of Defence and officials of the aviation wing made it clear to the national flag carrier PIA's management that air travel safety should not be compromised and rules which violate such measures be reviewed.
During the meeting, which was held to review the irritants and cool down tempers between the pilots and PIA management, the ministry's officials appreciated pilots' concern over violation of air safety in Pakistan and termed it a top priority of the federal government to ensure measures to provide maximum comfort to commercial passengers using Pakistani airlines for inland and foreign travel.
PALPA members, it is learnt, did not compromise on their respective stance on flight safety and stood firm on the clauses of the working agreement, which according to the pilots are consistently being violated by PIA's management, particularly the clause on flight duty time limitation. The pilots were engaged in war of words with PIA's management only because of its principled and unwavering stand on air safety.
In technical terms, pilots are the last line of defence. Therefore, world-wide they are governed with strict rules and are made to observe the rules, as careless pilots pose threats to passengers' lives. A human error, often referred to in case of a mishap, does not necessarily be that of a pilot only as there is a chain of people involved that could lead to a crash.
From an engineer, who checked and cleared the aircraft, to the one who is posted in the control tower up till the one observing the radar, are all part of that chain. The human factor also involves the management of the airline and the CAA that creates bad working environment, resulting in mental distress for pilots thus causing huge possibilities of safety perils.
In the light of uncompromising concerns expressed by PALPA over safety, Ministry of Defence took a few decisions in principle to broker reconciliation between PIA's management and PALPA on certain differences between the two, ie, a fresh inquiry would be initiated in the Bahrain incident in which a steward, who boasted of having the support of a political figure, had slapped the captain.
The seniority issue would be dealt with on merit. A committee has also been constituted to resolve the pension issue. It would finalise its recommendations by September 30 2010. The issue of No-Sub-One (NS-1) ticket for pilots was also discussed.
Ministry of Defence decided that working agreement 2009-10 would be implemented in letter and spirit. Furthermore it was formally decided to withdraw any show-cause notice/explanation issued against some PALPA members. The issue of contractual employment of pilots was also decided to be kept in pending till the finalisation of expansion forecast in the light of PIA's business development plan.