Preliminary report of PIA plane crash raises new questions

Karachi: A preliminary report on the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash, in which 97 people were killed, has raised serious questions about the pilot’s handling of the aircraft and what prevented the crew in the cockpit from informing the air traffic controllers about the troubles.
Pakistani investigators are trying to find out if the crash of the national flag carrier’s flight PK-8303 is attributable to a pilot error or a technical glitch, with new leads raising fresh questions over the circumstances of the incident.
According to a report, the Airbus A-320’s engines had scraped the runway thrice on the pilot’s first attempt to land, causing friction and sparks recorded by the experts. After the third impact, the pilot took the aircraft off into the air again, which officials found strange as the crew in the cockpit did not inform the Air Traffic Control of any problem with the landing gear, (PTI)