(FLIGHT HISTORY)

AIRBLUE ED202

Flight history :
 Air blue Flight ED202 was a scheduled Air blue passenger flight from
Karin's Jinnah International Airport to Benazir Bhutto International
Airport.
 On July 28, 2010,
 An Airbus A321-231 passenger plane crashed near Islamabad, the
capital of Pakistan,
 Killing all 146 passengers and six crew members on board.
 Airplanes crashed in Margalla Hills in northern Islamabad after pilots
failed to contact airline personnel while trying to get to the fog and heavy
rain.
 The accident was the first accident that killed the Airbus A321.
 Call sign : AIRBLUE 202
 ICAO flight No: ABQ202
 IATA flight No: PA202
 Occupants: 152
  Passengers: 146
 Crew: 6
 Fatalities: 152
 Survivors : 0

Flight:

 The aircraft that crashed the Airbus A321-231

 Registered AP-BJB
 The aircraft was built in 2000
 Manufacturer number 1218.

Crew:

 Captain of Flight 202, 61-year-old Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry, had 25,497

hours of flight experience, with 1,060 hours on an A320 flight.
 The first 34-year-old officer (Sqn Ldr) Muntajib Ahmed,
 A former F-16 Pakistan Air Force helicopter, had 1,837 hours and flight
experience and only 286 hours on an A320 flight.

Nationalities of passengers:

Nationalit Passengers Crew Total

y

Pakistan 141 6 147

United States 2 0 2

Austria 1 0 1

Germany 1 0 1

Somalia 1 0 1

Total 146 6 152

Timing:

 The flight left Karachi at 07:41 

 Flight controllers at Benazir Bhutto International Airport lost contact
with the aircraft at 09:41.

Crush site:
 It was then to have flown around the airport to the east and north,
keeping within a distance of 5 mil (9.3 km; 5.8 mi)
 Until lining up with runway 12, which faces toward the southeast.
 The aircraft crashed in the mountains outside the 5 nmi (9.3 km;
5.8 mil) radius, approximately 8 mil (15 km; 9.2 mi) north of the
airport,
 Facing almost due west, before it could line up with runway 12 for
final approach

Background

The aircraft, Airbus A321, had begun its landing approach to runway 30, one of
the two runways at Islamabad Airport, but due to the wind direction, the pilot
had to turn right to bypass the jet to runway 12, which is normal for flights
landing in Islamabad during the monsoon

As the aircraft began preparations for landing on runway 12, it descended to

approximately 2,500 feet and flew parallel to the runway over the route to
Islamabad.

The pilot attempted a visual landing on runway 12 because instrument assisted

landing is only available on runway 30. Visual landing results in visual contact
with the runway.

The pilots stated that the mandatory conditions for an indirect approach are to
maintain a minimum altitude of 2,500 feet, to stay within 2 3 miles of the
runway and to maintain eye contact with the landing runway at all times.

Radar noticed the deviation and warned traffic controllers, a source said.

The investigation has so far established the circumstances surrounding the

accident and is now looking for what caused the pilot to deviate

Crashed Reason
 Weather
 Technical Issue
 Communication barrier

Weather
Weather conditions indicated rain, poor visibility, and low clouds in and around
the airport.

The climatic conditions near the accident site were wind from 050 degrees to
16 knots; visibility at 2,000 meters; cloud base at 1,000 feet; and rain

The minimum conditions for landing are 500m of visibility and a cloud base of
500ft.

Airbus A320 of Air Blue Flight 202 took off from Karachi airport and the pilot
approached the control tower of Benazir Bhutto International Airport looking
for direction to land, according to the report, adding that due to bad weather,
the control tower asked the pilot to land on the Margalla Hill side. The pilot
followed the direction and turned in the direction of Margalla Hills which
resulted in the disaster.

The flight departed for Islamabad before landing, suddenly lost contact with
the Islamabad airport control tower. After a while the plane crashed.

Technical Issue
"The GPWS, installed in each aircraft, is a system that alerts the pilot when the
aircraft descends at low altitude

Investigators wonder whether the aircraft's proximity to ground warning system

(GPWS) worked.

This can occur when the aircraft flight data recorder, commonly known as the
“black box”, is retrieved and analyzed. TECHNICAL FAILURE but apart from
a possible pilot error, there is also a growing body of evidence that a technical
malfunction could have led the pilot to a navigation error. An air traffic
controller said that the GPWS "malfunction" may have been the cause of the
accident

Communication Barrier
ATC and radar controllers were concerned about bad weather and traffic; the
air traffic controller who lost visual contact with Air Blue flight ABQ202 became
concerned and sought radar help on the land line (ATC does not have a radar
range); the radar controller who cleared the aircraft to change the frequency
to ATC, dealt with the following traffic.

The radar had noted the deviation and had warned traffic controllers, a source
revealed.

"There was probably a communication failure," assumed one of the

controllers.

The plane that crashed around 9.45 a.m. I had last contacted the tower at 9.43
a.m.

There was also no "May Day Calls" - a distress signal - from the pilot, which
according to an aviation expert made it a perfect case of CFIT (controlled flight
in the field). CFIT is used to describe an accident in which an airworthy aircraft,
under the control of a pilot, is unintentionally thrown to the ground, a
mountain, water, or an obstacle

Therefore, the result exists due to pilot negligence, just as the communication
barrier pilot was unable to judge that he had reached a very low altitude that
resulted in the disaster.