An Airblue Airbus A321 crashed this morning while approaching Islamabad airport in Pakistan. Airblue flight 202 took off from Karachi airport at 7.50 am local time and did not report any troubles until it crashed. The plane was carrying 146 passengers and six crew members.The A321, registered as AP-BJB, was built in 2000, flew for German charter airline Aero Lloyd before and was delivered to Airblue in 2006. According to CNN, the plane had accumulated about 34,000 flight hours in some 13,500 flights. This is the first crash of an A321 in the history of the plane, which has been manufactured more than 600 times and is a very popular model of Airbus's A320 series.
So far, the reasons for the crash have not been determined. Bad weather has been mentioned several times. According to reports, there was dense fog and heavy rain. In my opinion, this is a bit contradictory - have you ever seen dense fog and heavy rain at the same time? I haven't! Also, eyewitnesses report that the plane "lost balance" before it crashed. I wonder how that happened. The A321 is a fly-by-wire plane and it is pretty much impossible to make it "lose balance." The Airbus's avionics prevent a stall or the loss of lift. What is clear, though, is the fact that the plane crashed into a mountain.
The New York Times reports that the pilot did not follow the air control's instructions. The pilot received a warning that he was flying away from the runway. The pilot responded, “I can see the runway.” In a second exchange, the dispatcher advised, “Immediately turn left, Margalla [Hills] are ahead.” The pilot responded, “we can see it [the runway].” Shortly after, the plane crashed into the mountain.
It looks like this is another crash caused by pilot error. And it shows again that a plane can be state-of-the-art and equipped with great fly-by-wire systems, but it cannot prevent a bad pilot from making a poor or wrong decision. A wrong decision that, in this case, caused the deaths of 152 people.
To read the CNN story, please click here.
To read the New York Times article, please click here.
ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES EMPLOYEES ARE GETING READY TO GO ON A STRIKE FOR FAILED NEGOTIATIONS ON THE SPENDING OF ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES REVENUES WITH PRIME MINSTER MELES ZENAWI BACKING UP HIS WIFE AZEB MESFIN . Azeb Mesfin, wife of dictator Meles Zenawi, member of the rubber stamp Ethiopian parliament and boss of the biggest corruption scheme in the world called the Endowment Fund the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) has been pushing state banks to the brink of bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteAccording to well-positioned banking sources, since Azeb took over EFFORT from Sebhat Nega last year she is personally pressurizing banks to illegally grant huge amounts of loans in local and hard currency. EFFORT, which allegedly owes close to 10 billion birr in unpaid loans mainly from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the Development Bank of Ethiopia and the Business and Construction Bank, is well-known for defaulting on the multi- billion birr loans it is raking out of the coffers of state-owned banks.
Azeb, widely known as the First Lady of Corruption and Queen of Mega, has been hand twisting banks, managed by inexperienced TPLF’s hirelings, to loan out a string of additional funds to EFFORT, which has practically monopolized the economy. The latest instalment of the loan bonanza to the privileged and discriminatory ethnic business conglomerate arrived in the amount of $120 million (1.6 billion birr) which was secured a few months ago from the major state banks including Development Bank of Ethiopia. The bank has already been in the red as it carries a huge burden of unpaid non-performing loans.
The latest loan was approved for EFFORT’s shady business proposal to launch a huge irrigation project in Tigray. Under Hiwot Agriculture Mechanization, one of TPLF’s numerous companies, EFFORT has already short-listed foreign agribusiness giants including, a Saudi Arabian Irrigation firm, Alkhorayet Industry and Valley, the British Irrigation company and Israeli Drip irrigation, Omni. The main idea of the project is to produce cash crop for export while two-thirds of households in Tigray depend on food aid.
“We are witnessing the most unacceptable form of discrimination that is illegal anywhere. Almost all state banks have been serving TPLF first as the rest of the nation is their last priority,” said a businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The Prime Minister’s wife has been using her influence and privilege to play with money at the expense of poor taxpayers. This is corruption of the worst kind. Nobody knows why EFFORT is not paying tax and servicing the loans that should have been invested on essential projects that benefits everyone,” he added.
It has been reported that almost all of TPLF’s companies, which barely pay income tax, are undertaking expansion projects financed by state-owned banks that never ask EFFORT and Azeb to pay back the funds. Last year EFFORT took out a whopping $1.41 million, nearly 2 billion birr, for the expansion of Messebo Cement Factory from the ailing Development Bank of Ethiopia, which sustains its operations on loans from internal and external loans.