Pakistan International Airlines has grounded its remaining fleet of 10 ATR 42s and 72s until it conducts what the country's Civil Aviation Authority described as “shakedown tests” of the airline’s fleet following the December 7 crash of a PIA ATR 42-500 that killed all 47 occupants. The suspension of operation will particularly affect PIA flights to small airports such as Gwadar, Turbat, Panjgur, Moenjodaro, Zhob, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Chitral and Gilgit, according to state-run Radio Pakistan.
The airplane crashed into a mountainside near Abbottabad in northern Pakistan, some 30 miles north of its intended destination, Islamabad. It had taken off on a scheduled service from Chitral, a town near the Afghan border popular with Pakistani tourists.
PIA chairman Azam Sehgal told a press conference that PIA “came to know” that one of the ill-fated aircraft’s two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127E engines had developed a fault, without providing further information. He said crews had recovered the flight data recorder from the crash scene. Built in 2007, the twin turboprop underwent an airworthiness check in October, he added.
Just a few days after the accident, Sehgal resigned from PIA, citing personal reasons, confirmed a company spokesman on December 12.