PIA Plane Flight 8303 Crash What Went Wrong
PIA Plane Flight 8303 Crash What Went Wrong
Transcript
00:00When the pilot spoke these words, the passenger aircraft was at a height of only 600 feet
00:12above Karachi.
00:14In Pakistan's largest city Karachi, everyone was locked in their homes due to the scorching
00:19heat.
00:20It was 2.35 in the afternoon and no one knew that an emergency situation was going to arise
00:26in Karachi in a few moments because the pilot of Pakistan International Airlines PIA 8303
00:32had given a distress signal of Mayday.
00:35This meant that the pilot was helpless and the plane was now out of his control.
00:40A few seconds after giving this signal, Karachi shook with a loud explosion and the sky was
00:45covered with a blanket of black smoke.
00:48The Airbus A320 model crashed on a densely populated colony just 430 meters before the
00:54airport.
00:55It is surprising that the investigation report stated that there was no fault of any kind
00:59in the plane, then how did this accident happen?
01:03What conversation was going on between the pilot and the traffic controller just a few
01:07minutes before?
01:08Why and how did the first attempt to land at this airport fail and what secrets were
01:12revealed in the investigation that lasted for 3 years?
01:16Once again welcome to World Stories Videos.
01:20On 22nd, 2020, flight 8303 was to take off from Lahore at 1pm and its destination was
01:27Karachi International Airport.
01:29It was a short flight which was to land at its destination in about 1 hour 45 minutes.
01:35At that time, the COVID lockdown was at its peak due to which very few flights were operating,
01:40but on the other hand, the month of Ramadan was going on and Eid holidays were about to
01:45come.
01:46With fewer flights and more passengers, that is, the flight was completely packed.
01:51There were a total of 91 passengers and 8 crew members on board.
01:56The weather was perfect in Lahore as well as Karachi.
02:00Talking about the pilots, the flight captain was 58-year-old Sajjad Gul who had joined
02:05Pakistan International Airlines 24 years ago and had 18,000 hours of experience.
02:11The first officer was 33-year-old Usman Azam who had spent 10 years in PI.
02:18This was a 16-year-old Airbus A320 aircraft which had two CFM56 turbofan engines and both
02:25these engines play a very important role in this story.
02:29The aircraft was in perfect condition and was being maintained as per Airbus recommendations.
02:35After completing all the preparations at Lahore Airport, the plane took off at 1.05pm with
02:40a delay of just 5 minutes.
02:43After some time, flight 8303 had reached a height of 34,000 feet which is called cruising
02:49altitude and it had to remain at this altitude for the next 45 minutes.
02:54On reaching cruising altitude, the cabin crew offered snacks to both the pilots but because
02:59they were fasting, they refused.
03:02During cruising, the pilots put the plane on autopilot and started talking about random
03:07things.
03:08The plane was crossing Nawabshah in 1,2 minutes and at this time it was connected with Karachi
03:13Control Tower which means the work of the previous control tower was over.
03:18Now the responsibility was on Karachi Tower.
03:22Karachi Control welcomed the pilots and asked them to reach Makhli directly.
03:26Normally, the planes flying on this route reach Nawabshah and confirm with Karachi Tower
03:31which route they have to take.
03:34There are many routes from Nawabshah to Karachi.
03:37These include Nawabshah 2A, Nawabshah 2B and Nawabshah 1C.
03:43The 2A route passes near Hyderabad and takes a right turn near Kinjar Lake and then goes
03:48straight to Karachi Airport.
03:50The 2B route comes straight from Nawabshah towards Karachi and then 28 km or 15 nautical
03:56miles from the airport.
03:58It takes a left from Makhli's place and comes straight to the airport and again turns
04:02right.
04:03The 3rd route is 1C which goes straight from Nawabshah to Makhli's place.
04:08These 3 routes are also recorded in the flight computer, that is, whatever route is assigned
04:13from Nawabshah.
04:15The pilot saves it in his flight computer and then the autopilot automatically increases
04:19or decreases its altitude and speed.
04:22Now the thing to note here is that PI Flight 8303 was first assigned the route of Nawabshah
04:282 which that the route is much longer than it appears but later on the pilot's insistence.
04:34He was allowed to reach Makhli directly because it was the time of the pandemic and there
04:38was no rush of flights.
04:40That is why the controller also gave him permission to reach Makhli directly but the pilot made
04:45a mistake that he did not save this shortcut in the flight management computer.
04:50That is, the computer was thinking that the route of Nawabshah 2A was selected whereas
04:54in reality he was coming from VC.
04:57The height of the plane at Nawabshah was 34,000 feet.
05:0134,000 feet and at Makhli Waypoint 28 km from Karachi Airport, the plane should have been
05:07up to 7,000 feet.
05:10Now obviously the plane cannot come down from 34,000 to 7,000 immediately so it has to reduce
05:16its altitude slowly on the way from Nawabshah to Makhli if the route is long.
05:21The altitude will decrease gradually and if the route is short then the altitude will
05:25decrease rapidly.
05:27Due to the 2A route being selected in the flight computer, it was decreasing the altitude
05:32by 1,000 feet per minute whereas the pilots were taking the plane through the 1C route
05:37in which the altitude should have decreased more rapidly.
05:40Due to this, what happened was that at the Makhli location where the plane should have
05:44been at 7,000 feet, it was actually at 10,000 feet.
05:49When the Karachi controller saw the altitude of PK 8303 on the radar, the aircraft lost
05:5410,000 feet.
05:56When it was found to be too high, the pilot was asked that if your altitude is too high,
06:01will you be able to land easily or will you reduce the altitude by taking a round on Makhli
06:06itself, to which the captain said that no, we will do it and refuse to take a round.
06:12Till now both the pilots were not aware that the route saved in the computer was different
06:16and they were coming from another route.
06:18This information was clear to them but they did not pay attention to it.
06:23After Makhli, the nose of the plane was put down to reduce the altitude.
06:28Now it was coming down rapidly at the speed of about 2,400 feet per minute, that is, 2,400
06:34feet were being reduced in one minute and due to the nose being down, the speed of the
06:39plane also increased.
06:41After a few seconds, the plane had reached 21 kilometers away from the runway.
06:47Its altitude, which was 10,000 feet earlier, now became 6,000 but at this point, according
06:52to the rule, the altitude had to be reduced to 6,000.
06:57It has to be kept at 3,000 feet, which means these people were at double altitude.
07:03During this, the controller tried to contact the captain several times but according to
07:07the flight data recorder, the pilot had mistakenly changed the radio frequency.
07:12When the captain could not be contacted, then the captain was contacted through emergency
07:16frequency and he was told that you are at 6,000 feet whereas here you should be at 3,000
07:22feet.
07:23He was asked to orbit again, which could reduce both the speed and altitude of the plane.
07:29But this time also the captain refused saying that we have been established on the runway,
07:33we will do it.
07:35On this occasion, the captain told the first officer that you will see that after landing,
07:39these people will be surprised.
07:42This voice was also recorded in the cockpit voice recorder and the Karachi controller
07:46also heard it.
07:48The controller asked him to orbit again.
07:51The captain refused for the third time.
07:54At this point, the captain realized his mistake that actually the flight computer had selected
07:59route 2A, while he had come from 1C.
08:02He was also heard saying, oh what has happened, stop, end the hold.
08:07On which the first officer ended his hold and gave all the hold to the captain.
08:12Remember that till this point, the first officer was flying the plane, while the captain's
08:16responsibility was to keep an eye on everything and the captain was not aware that the first
08:21officer did not open the landing gear.
08:24PK-8303 was coming down very fast and at one point its speed increased to 650 km per hour
08:31on which warning alarms started ringing.
08:35As soon as it reached close to the ground, because his landing gear was not open, another
08:39alarm also started ringing.
08:42At this point, the first officer got scared and asked the pilot, sir, are we really going
08:47to go into an orbit?
08:49So that both speed and height can be controlled, but the captain was adamant.
08:53When he reached near the runway, multiple alarms were ringing in the plane, including
08:58one of the landing gear.
09:00In this confusion, the plane landed on the runway without the landing gear open.
09:05The plane touched the runway four times in 16 seconds, due to which there were a lot
09:09of jolts in the cabin and both the engines of the plane rubbed on the runway and oil
09:13started leaking from them.
09:16The captain, who was already confused due to the alarms, realized at this point what
09:20mistake he had made, but then the first officer shouted, sir, take off, sir, take off.
09:26In panic, the captain agreed to the first officer and lowered the lever and lifted the
09:30plane up again.
09:32Experts believe that at this moment the plane should have been left on the runway itself.
09:38At the most, the engine would have caught fire, but at least he would have been close
09:41to the airport emergency service.
09:44There was a chance that the fire could have been controlled, but the captain did not do
09:48so.
09:49On taking off again, he realized that one engine had failed due to friction and now
09:54the plane was flying on only one engine and its condition was also not good because oil
09:58had leaked from both the engines.
10:01Now after reaching a height of 3,000 feet, he did a go around and was moving towards
10:06the runway again, on which the control tower told him that all the runways are empty, you
10:11can land on any of them.
10:13Meanwhile, vibrations started in the last engine and after a while that too stopped.
10:18Now the plane was moving in a circle towards the runway without an engine and its altitude
10:23was decreasing rapidly.
10:25This time the captain had opened the landing gear much earlier due to which drag was being
10:29created and the speed was decreasing.
10:32That speed seed which he needed the most at this time.
10:36At a height of 600 feet, he had come in line with the runway, but the captain had realized
10:41that he would not be able to reach the runway and that is when he gave a mayday call Mayday
10:45Mayday Pakistan 8303.
10:49Then after a few seconds, just 1340 meters before the runway, at 245 minutes, PI Flight
10:55PK 8303 crashed on the houses of Model Colony.
11:00The explosion caused by this crash was heard even miles away and black smoke started rising
11:05in the sky.
11:06Out of the 99 passengers in the plane including the crew, 2 people miraculously survived while
11:12one life was lost on the ground due to crashing on the houses.
11:16The emergency service reached immediately but due to the narrow streets, they had to
11:20face a lot of difficulty in working.
11:23According to the investigation report, the responsibility of this accident lies with
11:27the captain who repeatedly violated the rules and regulations and many times refused to
11:32follow the instructions of the traffic controller.
11:36The second responsibility lies with the air traffic controller.
11:40Why didn't they tell the pilot that their landing gear was not open if they landed first?
11:45If the gear had opened in the first place, then perhaps this situation would not have
11:49arisen.
11:51The third reason given was that both the pilots were fasting that day, that is, they had not
11:55eaten or drunk anything for the last 7 hours.
11:59Later, flying was banned while fasting.
12:02In the same investigation report, it also came to light that 40 pilots of Pakistan International
12:08Airlines did not have a license.
12:11Thanks for the loving comments.
12:13See you in the next wonderful video.