News
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Investigators to probe possibilities of sabotage, hijacking* Govt forms two separate teams to determine crash cause
By Tahir Niaz
ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday formed two separate investigation teams to determine the actual cause of the Airblue flight’s crash.
The first team, led by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Zafarullah Khan, has been assigned the task of investigating the possibility of sabotage.
According to official sources, the plane remained in the no-fly zone for quite some time and also flew over the diplomatic enclave, the Parliament House and the Presidency before crashing into Margalla Hills.
The sources said the team would scrutinise the credentials of the passengers on the flight, keeping in mind the possibility that a suspect might have tried to use the plane as a “flying bomb” against any sensitive installation.
According to eyewitnesses, before it crashed, the plane circled over the F-5 and F-6 sectors of the federal capital, which are close to the Presidency, the PM House, the diplomatic enclave and the Parliament House.
The investigation team will also look into the possibility of hijacking of the crashed plane.
“The investigation team will look into the possibility whether the plane, flying away from the defined route, was to be used as part of an act of sabotage,” the sources said.
The government has formed another six-member team led by Air Commodore Khawaja Abdul Majeed, the Civil Aviation Authority Safety Investigation Board president, to investigate the crash.
The investigation team started its work immediately with special focus on human factors, technical fault and weather conditions.
Examination of the plane’s black box will also help the investigators in ascertaining the real cause of the crash and what was going on in the cockpit of the plane before the crash.
The team will also record the statements of eyewitnesses, who saw the plane before it crashed. Both the committees will present their findings to the federal government.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk