PK-8303 Air Crash: An Enigma of Sorts

In the aftermath of Pakistan International Airlines Pk-8303 crash, there are left some conspicuous questions to be answered. Queries of the sort; what happened during those final few minutes of crash? Who was doing what on the flight deck? First officer designated as PM (Pilot Monitoring) was doing his job or not? Where in the traffic pattern did the flight crew decide to put the gears (tyres) down or did they do it at all? When was the decision to go-around initiated with TOGA (take off- go around) taken? Was flight crew having a human performance degradation onset after the one hour plus flight from Lahore to Karachi due to PPEs (Personal Protection Equipment) under Covid 19 SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)? How was it, they were found so high on the descent profile to land to Karachi International Airport? Seemingly, glaring issues galore but the most important question is amiss in this long list… WHY!?

Aircraft Accident Investigation is one long catalog of tick-offs of hypothesis, probabilities and possibilities over a tediously long period of time. Aim of the whole activity is to find the WHY in the occurrence. Why did the pilots opt to do what they did in the cockpit while maintaining an unstable approach? This one question needs answering. Out of 5WH (What-Where-When-Who-Why-How) investigation paradigm, WHY is also the most challenging conclusion to reach… But also the most damning. Investigation of any sort in the world has one sole purpose… AVOID RECURRENCE! Meaning thereby, another accident taking place due to the same reason or consequential chain of events will render the inquiry at hand questionable by any quality standards.

Aviation has had many global bizarre occurrences like Filair Let L-410 crash in 2010 and Aeroflot Flight 593 to the not so bizarre like that of Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 and Air France Flight 296. Although decent conclusions were reached and CPAs (Corrective-Preventive Actions) documented as well as disseminated to all concerned. After talking with concerned international investigators, all exclaimed that the WHY part was the most challenging to find in the whole shemozzle. For all experienced aircraft accident investigators, this turned out to be a quagmire of their own making. The reason, as in every organization, every aviation business entity has its fare share of bureaucracy. And where there is bureaucracy, there is layer upon layer of systems that needs peeling to find the truth. More often, the deeper one delves the more challenging it gets to speak the truth, as well as flip side, ‘listen’ to the truth.

Both developed and developing aviation world is damned by this all-important question mark. Pk-8303 will also have its fare share of realities to be found. After the honeymoon relationship ends of the televised, print and social media with the accident, the real business will start. Decoding of DFDR, FDCVR already done and the preliminary report as per ICAOs Annex 13 around the corner, the accident investigation team will be having their hands full. Not that the professionals are incompetent but only time will tell if they will be able to face the brunt of the all organizations involved to speak the ‘Truth’ or the ‘Acceptable Truth’.

About the Writer

The author is an experienced aircraft accident investigator with 21 years of relevant Aviation-related experience. He is a member of International Society of Air Safety Investigators, USA as well as Royal Aeronautical Society, UK. He has elaborated on Aviation Safety & Risk Management with Flight Safety Foundation, USA at Singapore Aviation Academy on topic of ‘Predictive Aviation Risk Management’. Generated flight safety related on ‘Automated Flight Deck Management’ discussion at Williams AAFB, Australia with DDAAFS, Directorate of Defense Aviation and Air Force Safety (Australia). He is presently working with Phoenix Aviation Safety, Australia as Associate Consultant and Special Director to American Aviation International Marketing, USA.