PIA Plane Flight 8303 Crash What Went Wrong

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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.

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