Bhoja Air Boeing 737 Down Near Chaklala, Rawalpindi

[Abbas Ali]

Bhoja Air flight B4-213 condolence message published in April 22 newspaper.



Abbas

[saadm80]

Would just like to add more to what Tailwind said,
Yes agreed as a Society we have Failed, and i am not Doubting CAA for issuing the AOC to the Aircraft, Reinstating Bhoja Air. But Isn't this true that there should be a Continuity of Policies, like in the past 35 years CAA has got 18 new DG Now how can there be Continuity of Policies when every now and then DG CAA is being changed, and its a Fact CAA like every other Organization is Politicize...

CAA, should be an Autonomous Body, with its own budget allocation......

[Abbas Ali]

Apparently Bhoja Air licence has not been cancelled.

News channels are reporting crash victims bodies also transported by Bhoja Air flights aircraft.

Abbas

[Abbas Ali]

According to latest reports, the crashed Boeing 737-236 Adv (AP-BKC) was owned by a Sharjah-based company - most probably Jet Aviation (FZC).

AP-BKC was on lease to Bhoja Air for US Dollars 40,000/- per month and the aircraft arrived in Pakistan on January 25, 2012.

Apparently, other Boeing 737s of Bhoja Air are also owned by Sharjah-based Jet Aviation (FZC).

Abbas

[Moin]

$40,000 a month? Just goes to show the current value of the plane.

ISB/RWP/Chaklala has been operating as an international airport for decades. In the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's everything was uneventful. Only now these problems are coming up. Freaky weather/climate change or deterioration of the airlines and CAA or both?

[Q K J]

Well it's way to early to say what happened but 737-100/200 series had a fault in rudder controller unit which is located close to tail...god know if that was looked at... in 80's and early 90's there were 3 crashes of 737's which were on final and crashed due to to this bad unit... 1 was united and the other one was northwest...but again it is way to early to say what happened in this case...May Allah forgive those who died in this accident.

[Zulfiqar]

$40,000 a month? Just goes to show the current value of the plane.

ISB/RWP/Chaklala has been operating as an international airport for decades. In the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's everything was uneventful. Only now these problems are coming up. Freaky weather/climate change or deterioration of the airlines and CAA or both?

I believe Islamabad has had rain and thunderstorms for Millennia (experiennced a few myself). If it was a microburst as suggested here, probability of flying into it was 1 in a million and very unfortunate and deadly. Failure by CAA to install modern weather radar systems and ILS (on runway 12) accompanied by no-fly areas around ISB may be contributing factors in recent incidents.

[PIA10141]

Don't know how authentic this is, but I found an image which is reported to be the 737 being hit by lightning moments before it crashed.

[Abbas Ali]

^ That's not Bhoja Air aircraft.

Actually it's ANA - All Nippon Airways Boeing 747 that was harmlessly struck by lightning during takeoff from Osaka Airport in 2007.

Here's video clip on YouTube.



Abbas

[EinsteinMux]

Don't know how authentic this is, but I found an image which is reported to be the 737 being hit by lightning moments before it crashed.

I've seen this in some National Geographic program; this aircraft was struct by lightening right after take-off and landed safely

[PIA10141]

Thanks for the correction Abbas.

[mac777]

the monthly lease rate of $40,000 per month is possible while the sale value should be $1.5m-3m. its still expensive to fly scrap metal.hope they have adequate insurance cover, otherwise they will soon have to close down and unable to pay compensations

[Abbas Ali]

Following set of images show the area where news reports claim that Bhoja Air Boeing 737 made first contact with the ground and also left tyre marks.

Some eye witnesses say that the aircraft was not on fire when it touched this area and they thought that the aircraft attempted to 'land' at this place.



In following image, the same area is seen marked with a white line most likely by investigation team.



Following set of images shows higher ground level and a broken/torn tree. Reports claim that after touching ground in area shown in images above, part of the aircraft then hit this tree and from this higher ground level, the aircraft bounced into the air and exploded.





Abbas

[umar744]

salam hello today my deaf friend Qamar (Capt. Nayyar Iqbal PIA 777's eldest brother) told me that Deaf & Dumb daughter and daughter's grandmother crashed died on Bhojar Air 737 in Rawalpindi and Deaf & Dumb's son flew PIA 747 free of charge from Karachi to Islamabad to found his sister's body and his grandmother's body sent to Karachi to funeral and I have checked my deaf friend in Karachi confirmed me that they went to their friend Deaf & dumb's house for pray also attended funeral. Many deaf friend are very sad sorry to them for loss of their daughter and grandmother. Yes ro No did you know any information?

[Abbas Ali]

According to latest news reports:

* Investigation team has completed collecting evidence from crash site and in next 48 hours work will start to shift wreckage pieces from crash site to Islamabad Airport.

* USA's National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and engine-maker Pratt & Whitney will also take part in investigation process. The crashed Boeing 737-200 of Bhoja Air was powered with a pair of Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines.

* Crashed aircraft's Flight Recorders - Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) - will be sent to Washington, DC, USA, for decoding process.

In PTV News bulletin today, the video footage of crash site also showed lower side of crashed aircraft's port-side wing (indicated by red navigation light) with letters 'BKC' of aircraft registration 'AP-BKC' visible to camera.



The same side of wing photographed on January 26, 2012, at Karachi Airport.


AP-BKC BHOJA AIR B737-200 by shabid2009, on Flickr

Abbas