PK 661 Plane Crash – In the Memory of 47 Souls And Questions that remain Unanswered !

December 7, 2016

Scene 1:

It is a cold day in Chitral. Calm and cloudy.

A Daughter: "Mom, I can hear the plane. I guess it has landed at Chitral airport.

Mother (who is already on the roof of her house): "Yes darling. Your father will soon be leaving for Islamabad. He insisted that I should go with him too. But I thought you would be alone at home."

Daughter: "Thank you, Mama!" (Both hug each other and wait for the plane to take off).

At the airport:

PK 661 Chitral – ISB 

Flight Status:  Boarding

(After 20 minutes the foker is on the runaway, gathers speed and takes off).

Passenger 22A: "Our rooms have been booked at the hotel, right?"

Passenger 22B:  "Yes. A car will also pick us from Islamabad airport".

Passenger 21B: "This time we should stay longer in Islamabad. It's very cold here, sir''.

(The three companions laugh and the air hostess brings snacks for refreshment).

Suddenly something happens to the plane. The passengers could feel the turbulence. The plane shakes badly. Some hold on to the seats some to each other. It was like the earthquake of 2015 that shook Chitral from Drosh to Laspur. But the earthquake was for a shorter period. The plane took longer. It lingered over Havellian for a while. Then the passengers could see a sharp fall.

(A long pause ……….)

PK 661 Plane Crash site

Scene 2:  

Mother: "Your father would have landed by now, darling. Let's go downstairs and cook something for supper."

(In the kitchen, the daughter turns on the TV while her mother plans what to cook). Phone rings.

Daughter (receives a call from her cousin): "Hello bro. How are u?"

Cousin: "I’m good. Is uncle at home?"

Daughter: "Father has gone to Islamabad. Today."

Pause…….. .. "OK Jan. Talk to you later." Phone disconnects.

(Headlines on TV Screen… PK 661 carshed over Havellian)

Daughter turns pale, numb and dumb. TV remote control falls from her. She can't speak to her mom. Her throat dries up to her tongue.

(After 1 and half months)

Scene 3:

During the past 53 days Chairman PIA resigns. The families who lost their loved ones go through a very tragic state of life where they had to wait for more than a week to receive the dead bodies. Burials takes places at various villages in Chitral. The only survivor in a family who lost 6 family members goes through a trauma and can be seen in a hospital in Karachi. The rest of families still tearing their hearts apart in the love of their beloved who left them so early. The tears in the eyes of the mothers, sisters, brothers and fathers of the 47 souls don’t' seem to stop. Nothing seems to pacify them.

Now that they have accepted this unfortunate incident, the only thing that they want to understand is, 'how this happened?''. The only thing they now want to know is the reason behind the plane crash. Black box report has been complied. Nothing came out of it. According to the report the plane was in 'perfect' condition. Both engines were working very fine. So this tragic event would not be deeply investigated again. The value of human life is not-so-important topic in this part of the world. The Govt. is not very 'interested' in such cases.

Relatives of deceased and civil society demand transparent inquiry of the incident

( The sons and daughters of the deceased lament over the post plane crash investigation whenever they see each other. )

"Oh how naïve we are! Did we forget that while the dead bodies were lying in the cold storage of PIMS, neither our Prime Minister nor our well known politicians came over to show a shred of solidarity with the bereaved families? How come we expect that the case will be transparently investigated, reported and shared with the public so that in future such mishaps don't happen? Human life is not so valuable in Pakistan. So let the people of this country die. Let the tourists who planned to go to Chitral in 2017 change their plans. Let the people of Chitral accept that flying with PIA is a suicide attempt and there is no solution for suicides in Pakistan."

But this was not a suicide. It was a murder. Who cares? At least, not our Government.

            ( To be continued..... )

Lawari Tunnel, Chitrali Passengers and Solution

On Friday January 20th, we reached Upper Dir Aljareeza Hotel at 12:30 pm. Our plan was to arrive at tunnel by 2 pm and get through. But our vehicles were lined up at Dir and at 8:30 pm the convoy coming from Chitral ended and we reached tunnel (Dir side) at 9:30 pm. It was commendable that AC Dir and his staff were present at Dir dealing issues and dozens of police jawans were also on the roads at various points to troubleshoot problems which were mostly created by trucks carrying tons of goods. However at tunnel we had to wait for 3 more hours and at 1:00 AM we crossed lawari tunnel and reached Ziarat. Again jawans of Chitral scouts, police or army were seen directing the vehicles. Trucks kept creating problems for local passengers by not moving ahead and being stuck at several places. From Ziarat to Baradam it took 2.5 hours creeping. In almost 24 hours we reached Ziarat Chitral from Islamabad.

District Administrations on both sides are doing a good job but I think given the huge traffic through tunnel it's simply not possible to manage the transportation in a 2 days per week schedule by Chitral and Dir administration. It simply is not possible. We have hundreds of passenger vehicles and trucks with goods on these two days. The roads are frozen with snow. Two vehicles cannot overtake or give way. So how can all vehicles moving at 15km/hr reach their destination at right times ? If only one truck is stuck on the road all the 330 vehicles have to wait till it is moved. 

Therefore we would request Govt to :
- Stop work in tunnel at least in winters so that on average 50 vehicles per day travel from each side.
- Saturday and Sunday be allotted to goods transporters ( trucks, mazda etc) only. Rest of the days they should not be allowed to travel.
- A medical camp should be available at tunnel project site for local passengers esp older ppl, children & women.

Right now, it's 3:00 AM and we are stuck near Baradam Ziarat. As I said, even if Hercules comes to rescue us this 2days/week schedule won't work.