Daily Times

Sir: The tragic plane crash in Islamabad has not only killed 127 people, but has created a fear among people about the safety standards of private airlines. The Air Blue crash in 2010 should have been a lesson for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to ensure air travel safer than before, but ostensibly failed to do so. People are within their rights to blame the CAA for allowing the flight of the ill-fated Bhoja Airways, Boeing 737-200, to land in such bad weather conditions, without considering the magnitude storm in view. It is quite evident that the expense would have been limited if the plane had been made to land at a different location. This is indeed a strong reason to blame the CAA but the real accusation should be why it allowed people belonging to the private sector to run airlines with old and unsafe planes. Private companies can never achieve excellence due to multiple reasons, the primary being undue political intervention and their poor financial standing. Although many fingers have been pointed at PIA for having a poor service delivery, I would still prefer the CAA to disallow others and patronise our national career, the PIA. Now is the time for reforming PIA by professional management and heavy investment to add new generation planes. An effective management of PIA with trustworthy aircraft is the answer to the present crisis.

MUHAMMAD IBRAHIM TARIQ

Lahore