The Snow Will Melt

Zubair was my colleague from school days. A sort of ruffian. So was Amer Kemal my class mate. Another classfellow Imran Joined the PAF and then PIA.
I saw Shamshad frequently in Quetta in the late 80s/early 90s, usually in company of other cabin crew and friends in a house on Ordinance Road. When I heard of the tagedy, I said to myself. Does PIA have some policy. Maybe I am wrong.

A student of mine told me that out of the Blue, he saw this wreckage in a dream and that all were well living in a habitat, thinking they were in another world.

May the snow melt

I have worked in Northern areas with an NGO......
All the people there are unanimous that ill fated plane owed its ill fate to Pak army....
That we accidentally shot our own plane......
Snow will never melt.....
because it is hiding a hedious crime....

An AN-12 of the IAF took off for Leh on 07feb'68, and had to turn back due to bad weather over J&K, and then went delayed. Missing for almost 35 years (except for one report in 1987) many relatives believed that the aircraft had been taken to Pakistan. Then in 2003, one dead body with uniform and documents intact was found, after which more were located as well as parts of the aircraft.

Likewise, the airplane "Stardust" went adrift in the Andes, and the glacier finally returned the aircraft and the bodies after 50 years.

I could not understand the reference to Zia's plane crash, though.

i remember this crash.an officer i knew lost his wife and two sons in that crash.he was trekking for many years in the Northern Areas to find his family I was told.

The snow will most definitely melt to give up its secrets.

It might be doing so on a most recent tragedy



Benezair to be exhumed!

Musharuf wants the body out and a proper autopsy carried out so that people find out how she died.

Speaking to Newsweek magazine Pakistan President Pervez Mushraff was quoted as saying that he would want to call for the exhumation of former Pak Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s body and would want to lay to rest all allegations of government's involvement in Bhutto's assassination. However, he has ruled out ordering a post-mortem without the agreement of Bhutto's family.




go here to find the interview on video

http://www.findinternettv.com/Video,item,3574946106.aspx

I've flown on the Rawalpindi-Gilgit route many times as I worked in Gilgit for a while. It is really quite a spectacular flight. The mountains are much higher than the Fokker's max ceiling IIRC. In addition, the Gilgit runway used to be (don't know if it still is or not) a very short one and, especially in summer, payload was very limited. The mullahs wouldn't allow the govt to demolish an illegally constructed masjid at the end of the runway and let it accomodate jets. In summer on a hot day I've seen the pilot abort the takeoff at the last minute and return to offload passengers and luggage to lighten the load and then takeoff. Of course, the Begum Sahiba of the Admninistrator NAs or the GoC or some PIA bigshot with her friends and family and their 18 overweight suitcases are never removed. It is always some unconnected schmuck who got bumped.

Despite the runways short length, it was long enough to take C-130s as I've flown in those from Gilgit to Pindi as well.

In any case, I've never heard of a failed hijack attempt theory or an accidental shooting down theory. The two that I've heard are very different. First one is that the plane was never found because it went off course to do some unscheduled sightseeing. If there were friends/relatives of PIA personnel (or govt big shots) on board, it wasn't unheard of for flights to take a slight detour to get a really good view of some major peak. While doing this the plane crashed and that is why it was never found since it was many, many miles off-course. The other theory is that the pilot let someone inexperienced take the controls (friend, relative, someone) and that person crashed the plane. While the unprofessionalism of some (many?) PIA pilots is legendary, this one is a bit too much even for me to believe.

As Veeresh has pointed out, the most logical answer is that it is lying where it crashed: no explosion, no gunfights, no Stinger that took it down; probably just bad weather and/or pilot error.

However, we Pakistanis have never let the truth stand in the way of a really good conspiracy theory; the more unbelievable, the better.

Re: # 3
Dear Veeresh,
Please read this again and TRY to understand it:

Those who perished with the ‘light of truth’ left behind silent sons who chose not to reveal the ‘hidden hand’ behind the episode; the price that grown men sometimes pay to become federal ministers.

The reference to Zia's crash leads to THIS! Now find out from those who know who these gentlemen are!

Happy hunting.

Re: # 6

You said:
I've never heard of a failed hijack attempt theory or an accidental shooting down theory.

But I say:
There are plenty! Korean Airlines 747 (KL 007 from Anchorage to Alaska on On September 1, 1983)was made to look like an accident. It was not. Read this (and more on your own): http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/kal-007.htm

And what about the Egypt Air Flight 990 that plunged into the Atlantic on 31 October (Halloween scare!?) 1999: http://www.albalagh.net/current_affairs/egypt_crash.shtml

Know the world for what it is, not what it seems!

Re: # 6

You said:
The other theory is that the pilot let someone inexperienced take the controls (friend, relative, someone) and that person crashed the plane. While the unprofessionalism of some (many?) PIA pilots is legendary, this one is a bit too much even for me to believe.

And I say:

PIA is not a Russian airline where a father let his son crash a jet. True, men makes mistakes and often pay with their lives, but which drunkard has narrated to you the legends of PIA pilots?

It might be more useful to investigate how our C-130s are misused by begums who sometimes forget their purses! Any honest Shaheen out there, anyone , please ....?

Re: Tahir #6,

Was referring specifically to the missing PIA Fokker, not to all hijacking/crashes/shooting-downs worldwide; I thought the context should be clear to anyone.

It was the PIA Station Manager (or whatever his exact title was) in Gilgit who told me about these two theories. I was in his office with a good friend of mine who knew him really well; trying to get seats for Pindi. Why would he make this up?

In any case, just how stupid are you? If you actually read my post I said, "this one is a bit too much even for me to believe." Do you not understand this? I said these were two theories that I had heard, not what I think actually happened.

On the Pindi-Gilgit flight I myself have seen the pilot's two teenage nephews go up to the cockpit area, the copilot leave and one of them sit in his seat for a few minutes. Yeah, tell me more crap about PIA's professionalism. Up to about the early 1970s I've heard that PIA was a really good airline and then Bhutto and Zia buggered it good. In Zia's time he actually improved it by the wholesale sacking of PIA staff but all these actions are really minimal and temporary improvements at best.

Haven't you heard the one about the pilot who was so drunk he tried to land on the Pindi-Isl highway instead of Isl airport? OR was this also made up?

In any case, I have a very low opinion of PAF professional behavior as well, especially of the behavior of Begum Sahibas like Mrs. Air Chief Marshal Shamim. If you had actually understood my post, you will have seen that I did say something about the behavior of our Begum Sahibas...

I think you are pretty indicative of the abysmal standards of PIA if you had any position of responsibility in it.

As far as the pilots go, one of them was a very senior pilot named Taj. Lets leave the rest of the name out; either you know who he is or you don't.

It was impossible to believe that none of the spy satellites recorded the accident or that satellite photos were unavailable to help locate the survivors.


dude..you've been watching too many movies..or too many DVDs of 24.

Re: # 10

You said:
In any case, just how stupid are you?

I think you are pretty indicative of the abysmal standards of PIA if you had any position of responsibility in it.

I say:

What school did you go to? Is this the way you've been taught to address those who make you want to read a line or two? Let's see you become a writer Fuz Air!

And what kind of responsibility do you have in life? Not flying spy missions over us I hope?

Peace

Re: # 11

What do you think they wish you to know through those lovely entertaining movies? The ideas are floated years in advance to 'prepare' the sheeple (people who are sheep-like)!

Dude?! I know only doodh. Whatever happened to sir, mister, janab, huzoor etc.?

Peace (om shanti om; now is'nt that the name of a movie?)

I remeber that incident. One of the reasons the plane could not be located was that PIA violated the international aviation standard regarding the planes that fly over snow capped frozen zones. One of the requirements of this standard is that the rudder, fuselage, and wings all must have bright orange marking and spots on the top surface, so that if plane crashes in the snow zone, it could be located. If memory serves me right, one of the widow of the crash victims sued PIA for violating this standard, for millions of rupees. The PIA and its insurance company took the position that since remains of the plane were not found, therefore, there is a reasonable doubt that crash may not have happened. The kicking and screaming widow refused to accept the standard 100k compensation and word has it that she was made to disappear by pakistani intelkligence agencies.

I ahve shopped at Billy's supermarket in Karachi, one that was at the cusp of Akhtar colony and perhaps phase 5 of Aktar colony. I also remember meeting "the owner" since he was an acquaintance of my uncle. But now I cannot put face on the name, and didn't even know that he was one of the crash victims. This is indeed a small world.

urstruly,

when are you going to write a new piece?

Hopefully something less mullah oriented and more general life oriented...