The European Commission has decided to retain the ban on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operations in its member countries.
According to details, The EU Air Safety Committee (ASC) in Brussels last month updated the list of airlines whose operations had been banned by the European Commission, which includes the PIA.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had suspended the authorisation for the PIA to operate in European Union member countries for six months in July 2020.
Previously ban came after the PIA plane crash in Pakistan’s Karachi on 22 May 2020, which killed 97 people. The plane crash investigation revealed that pilots had suspicious licences. Later the Pakistan’s aviation minister’s speech that “one third of Pakistani pilots had suspicious licences,” alarmed the international authorities. The EU had also put Pakistan on notice showing concern over the issue of pilots’ licences
The European aviation agency’s ban was soon followed by similar actions by the UK and US aviation authorities.
According to the Dawn News, a letter sent to former secretary of aviation Hasan Nasir Jamy, in which EU concern persists about PCAA safety deficiencies, not only on the pilot licencing areas but on the whole licencing and authorisation processes, application and oversight of safety management systems and the establishment of the occurrence reporting system, among others.
The EU said that the ASC deliberations confirmed a continued concern over the measures taken by the PCAA in terms of a proper root cause analysis and suitable corrective measures to prevent re-occurrence of the same or similar safety deficiencies.