i never flown a plane but i have extensive experience with hovercrafts...
and instruments can misguide you at times....
one should be able to take his/her vehcle to safety by visual observtions and instincts no mtter uf instruments work or not.
ILS or any other instrument has supportive role only..its pilot skulls that is important...and that of maintinance crew....
Airplanes are totally different. Quite often it is safer to rely on instruments only.
=====================================================
from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/w...senger-plane-crashes-in-pakistan-capital.html
Airliner Crashes Near Pakistani Capital, Killing 127
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan A commercial airliner flying in a thunderstorm crashed into a wheat field outside Islamabad on Friday evening, killing all 127 people on board.
It was the second major plane crash near the capital in two years, reviving worries about safety standards in a domestic aviation industry that is plagued by weak regulation, corruption and labor unrest.
As news of the crash spread, family members gathered at Jinnah International airport in Karachi, where the flight began.
The Boeing 737-200 airplane operated by Bhoja Air, a private carrier, had taken off from the port city of Karachi and was approaching Islamabads Benazir Bhutto International Airport at 6:45 pm when it developed difficulties.
Witnesses said the pilot appeared to lose the ability to control the plane, which crashed near the village of Hussain Abad, five miles from the airport and two miles from a major highway.
The pilot lost control and hit the ground, Arshad Mehmood, a retired Navy pilot and officer who saw the crash, told television reporters. It tossed up due to the impact and exploded and came down in a fireball.
Rescuers found the main fuselage in a muddy field, but debris, bodies and luggage were scattered over a wide area. Four nearby houses were badly damaged, including one in which an aircraft wing had crashed through an outside balcony.
The Islamabad police chief, Bani Yameen, said no one on the ground had died but everyone on board the plane 121 passengers, including 11 children, and 6 crew members, according to the airline had perished.
Flight B4-213 was Air Bhojas first on the Karachi-Islamabad route since the airline, which was founded in 1993, reopened last month after an 11-year hiatus.
Grisly television video of the crash showed a smoldering wreckage and charred bodies as rescue workers worked futilely in driving rain to find survivors. Brig. Sarfraz Ali, who was leading the recovery efforts, told reporters that his team had recovered 110 bodies after six hours.
As news of the crash spread, grief-stricken relatives gathered at the airports in Islamabad and Karachi. My brothers wife was on board this flight, Naveed Khan told The Associated Press. We pray for the departed souls. What else can we do now?
As the night dragged on, rescue workers using flashlights continued their search. It was the second air disaster on the Karachi-Islamabad route in as many years. On July 28, 2010, an airliner owned by Airblue, the countrys largest private operator, crashed into the Margalla hills near Islamabad in fog and heavy rain, killing all 152 people on board. An official inquiry found that pilot error was to blame in what was the deadliest air accident on Pakistani soil.
Initial reports suggested that a similar combination of weather and pilot error played a role in Fridays Air Bhoja crash.
Mr. Mehmood told the private news channel Geo that he saw the plane descending very rapidly before the crash. The weather was very rough, he said. The pilot could not control the plane. The death of nearly 300 people in two crashes on approach to the same airport since 2010 angered those in the aviation industry who said government oversight was weak and corrupt.
This is not about bad weather; I dont buy that, said Arif Abbasi, a former chief executive of Pakistan International Airlines, the state carrier. The state of aviation in this country leaves much to be desired.
Criticism centered on the Civil Aviation Authority, which polices aviation in Pakistan and is controlled by the defense minister, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.
The civil aviation authorities should be asked why so many accidents are taking place at this airport, said Capt. Rao Taimur, an official with the Pakistan Airline Pilots Association.
The Civil Aviation Authority announced an immediate inquiry into the crash. Last month, it reissued an airline operating certificate for Air Bhoja, which had ceased operations in 2001 after failing to pay its government dues. The airline resumed operations with a fleet of five Boeing 737 planes, connecting Karachi, Sukkur, Multan, Lahore and Islamabad.
The Civil Aviation Authority has also come under pressure in recent months from air traffic controllers seeking a pay raise. Local news organizations reported that controllers shut down air traffic control over much of the country for four hours on April 17 in a bid to press their case.
Safety worries are also focused on Pakistan International Airlines, once a proud state carrier that is widely acknowledged to have degenerated into a bloated, poorly managed company rife with nepotism and corruption.
In keeping with a trend in previous governments, the
Pakistan Peoples Party has given hundreds of Pakistan International Airlines jobs to supporters, leading to gross inefficiencies. It has an employee-to-aircraft ratio of 450 to 1, more than double that of many competitors.
In a State Department cable dated December 2009 and published by WikiLeaks, executives of rival airlines told American officials that Pakistan International Airlines flights were regularly delayed while government officials boarded the plane and that the airline often had to reserve up to 20 seats on a flight for government officials or their friends. It was not uncommon for those reserved seats to be unoccupied when the plane took off because the officials or their friends did not show up. When they did show up, they often did not pay.
The airline, which runs up hundreds of millions of dollars in annual losses that are subsidized by the government, has also faced serious questions about its maintenance record. The European Union banned Pakistan International Airlines flights from Europe for eight months in 2007 over concerns that its planes were not being properly serviced. Last February, Reuters reported, water from the toilets flowed through the aisles during a flight from London to Islamabad.
The airlines most recent accident occurred in 2006, when a smaller plane crashed shortly after taking off from the central city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board. It is seeking to revive its fortunes by leasing new aircraft from the Middle East; last February it ordered five new Boeing 777-300 ER planes that are due to be delivered in 2015.
