PIA to Ground 150 Pilots with ‘Dubious Licences’ 

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has suspended 150 pilots after questions over the authenticity of their licenses appeared. The announcement comes a day after an initial investigation found the human error was primarily responsible for a PIA plane crash that killed 98 people in southern Pakistan last month. “Out of our 434 pilots, 150 will ground as of today,”. PIA employee Abdullah Khan told from Karachi, where the crash took place on May 22. “It will cripple us. But we cannot take risks with this.” Thursday’s suspensions will remain until investigations can carry out to verify the pilots’ licenses.

The airline will primarily look into allegations that the pilots did not sit for the examinations themselves and sent others instead. Seventeen pilots suspended in January 2019 over similar allegations following a probe into an air crash in the southwestern Pakistani town of Panjgur. Where a plane carrying 43 passengers careered off the runway after making an unsafe approach – said, Khan. No one injured in that incident.

The spokesperson said that based on the internal assessment of the situation consequent to this tragic event. The PIA would be making additional recommendations to the regulatory authority for further improvement which is the order of the day. Saying that the regulator would be required to firm up and bring about zero-tolerance towards misdeeds in the grant and checking of licenses. Mr. Hafeez said some flights might be canceled consequently. But safety takes priority over commercial interests, and only pilots with perfect service records and clear credentials will operate the flights.

He said in order to ensure that safety is never compromise again. A Flight Data Monitoring Unit has established through which now the PIA will itself measure, analyze, and identify trends of PIA flights network-wide for corrective or preventive measures based on international established commercial aviation standards.