Pakistan suspends pilots

This item appears on page 5 of the August 2020 issue.

More than 150 Pakistan International Airlines pilots were grounded on June 25 after it was discovered that their pilot’s licenses were either fraudulent or had been gained through cheating on the license test.

A Pakistan International Airlines flight crashed in a neighborhood near the airport in Lahore on May 22 during a second landing attempt, killing 97 people. The investigators of that crash released their findings on June 24, blaming it on human error. They said the pilot had not properly deployed the landing gear on the first attempt, and then he and the tower crew did not follow proper procedures on the second attempt, leading to miscommunication and eventually the crash.