US questions on Pakistan Airline Safety

U.S. authorities have revoked the permit for a Pakistani-owned airline to fly flights from the country due to problems related to the validity of pilot licenses, a spokesman for the airlines said.Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was authorized earlier this year to operate 12 flights to the United States and allow the repatriation of Pakistani nationals to the country due to the coronavirus epidemic. On Thursday, the US Department of Transportation revoked the permit, using seven planes and five more waiting, PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan told Al Jazeera. According to an internal PIA email, seen by Al Jazeera, the US DoT has identified “‘the latest incidents identified by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority as a major concern for air safety’, especially issues related to the proper certification of certain Pakistani pilots reason for dismissal. On June 25, Pakistani Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said management had found 262 Pakistani pilots – nearly a third of all licensed pilots in the country – had acquired their licenses, a claim that was challenged by groups of pilots. Pakistan’s national carrier has suspended 150 pilots after questions about the validity of their existing licenses. Earlier, preliminary investigations found that the human error was largely due to a PIA plane crash that killed 98 people in southern Pakistan in May. Also, Said that the sparked widespread outcry, with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency suspending the country’s third PIA authorization to fly to European destinations a few days later. Some continents places Vietnam, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates have written to the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority to verify the licenses of pilots those were operating the aircrafts in the country. EASA has also written to European air traffic controllers asking them to suspend Pakistani pilots while awaiting confirmation of their certificates. Allegations by the Department of Air Force appear to focus on inconsistencies on written dates, with pilots who had been flagged down taking tests on the same day as they were on a flight, or on public holidays. Many pilots told Al Jazeera that they did not deny that they had ever flown on the same day as their tests, but said that this was “normal” and was not illegal. Earlier this week, the PCAA suspended the pilots’ licenses for 34 pilots in the matter. Eleven previous suspensions of this nature, issued in January 2019, have been challenged in court, and the trial is ongoing. PIA, a former pioneer airline for international airlines, stopped flying to the US in 2017, clarified financial considerations due to US security regulations forcing it to stop at its destination in Europe. Seven return flights were the first that Pakistani airlines had ever flown directly from the US, said company spokesman Abdullah Khan, telling Al Jazeera, that the airline was hoping to obtain permanent authorization after the coronavirus epidemic. Pakistani authorities began the process of applying for such authorization from the US Transportation Safety Administration last year, by U.S. inspectors conducting airport inspections in Pakistan in July 2019.