Three years later, plane crash victims’ families are still waiting for justice
Even though it’s been three years since a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed near the Karachi airport, killing 97 people, the victims’ families are still hoping for justice because the final report on the crash has not been finished.
On May 22, 2020, the A320 aircraft PK-8303 tried to land on a runway at Karachi airport without lowering its landing gear. It then crashed into houses in nearby Model Colony while trying to go around, killing 97 of the 99 people on board and one girl on the ground.
The federal government set up the Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board (AAIB) to lead the investigation. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and other experts later joined the investigation.
Even though a partial report was made public, the investigation is still not over because the AAIB hasn’t finished its final report yet.
Kashif Aman, whose mother Shahnaz Parveen was one of the 97 people who died in the crash, said that after three years, neither the final report on the crash nor the departmental procedures of the PIA and the Civil Aviation Authority have been made public.
“They want to break us [relatives of people who died in the plane crash], but we won’t give up. We want the government to share the final report of the investigation and punish everyone who was found to be at fault,” he said.
Families of the people who died blame the CAA, the air traffic director, and the district administration for the crash and the long time it took to put out the fire.
They asked why the two people who survived the crash and the families of those who died got the same amount of money ($10 million each).
Mr. Aman said that the families of the victims did not get the money from the luggage insurance, and that the air ministry had not punished the CAA and PIA for “breaking the law.”
At the same time, the victims’ families thought about their loved ones on the third occasion of their deaths.
On Sunday, a Quran khwani was held at Usman Ghani Park in Model Colony, which is close to where the crash happened.
