Pilots in Pakistan crash were chatting about coronavirus, says aviation minister

The pilots of a PIA plane that crashed in Karachi last month were chatting about coronavirus and not paying attention to the landing, the country’s aviation minister said Wednesday. The minister said that a separate investigation had revealed that hundreds of Pakistani pilots, working for domestic airlines as well as some airlines overseas, obtained their pilot licenses by cheating and were fraudulently credentialed. Ghulam Sarwar Khan, the aviation minister, announcing the findings of a preliminary report into the May 22 accident, said that the pilot tried to land without the plane’s wheels extended, scraping the engines along the runway. The plane then took off again to try for another landing, but the damaged engines failed. No technical problem with the Airbus A320 was found, Khan said. The minister also announced the results of an unrelated investigation which found that nearly one-third of active Pakistani civilian pilots have fraudulently-obtained flying licenses. He said many had others sit for their pilot exams, among other qualification abuses. He said that the 262 pilots with fraudulent licenses worked for PIA and private domestic carriers, while some were also employed by foreign airlines. “This is shameful,” Khan told parliament, vowing to restructure PIA. “We have to fix things, we have to fix this country.” Story has more details.<br/>