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Insanity in the Air: The crash of Pakistan International Airlines flight 8303 (admiralcloudberg.medium.com)
43 points by mathgenius on March 18, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 10 comments


The article discusses the bossy attitude of the captain... in another crash (Airblue Flight 202 [1]) had a similar crash, again because of the bossy attitude of the captain, resulting in a crash into the hills. Asian respect culture creates a toxic environment where disagreeing with elders/superiors is nigh impossible, resulting in various issues.

The article also mentions the skills issue, or lack thereof. The overall problem is simple, Pakistan is facing a massive outflow of talent, anybody with any skill tries their level best to just escape (including yours truly), which means that you are left with the dregs.

Infact, specifically of the PIA lights to Canada, flight crew just running away after landing has become such an issue that it has become increasingly difficult to staff flights.

Overall, Pakistan as an economy is facing massive loss of confidence, and PIA as a govt owned organisation, is representative of that. Compounded by the fact that the govt has attempted multiple times to privatise it and has failed due to bureaucratic issues.

There are rumours that the current hybrid regime has finally realised the upcoming wall we are going to crash into, and finally realised they just must privatise a lot of govt owned entities... but at such a terrible state, who will buy them?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airblue_Flight_202


Same issue with Alitalia flight 404[0], which crashed in Zurich. An airport not known to be significantly dangerous to approach.

The first officer initiated a go around, which the captain aborted. The issue probably could have been avoided if the captain would have trusted the first officer. There were other issues involved but this was the main error.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alitalia_Flight_404


> Infact, specifically of the PIA lights to Canada, flight crew just running away after landing has become such an issue that it has become increasingly difficult to staff flights.

Running away?


I took this to mean quitting without notice and staying to live in Canada.

Reminds me of the California gold rush. So many passenger ships were stranded in the bay because the crews would just quit en-masse once they arrived and saw what was going on.


How does that work? Do pilots have an automatic visa / permanent residency to places they fly to?


I assumed by "running away" they meant they'd just leave the airport and live as undocumented/illegal immigrants.


They just land, escape from the hotel and apply for asylum.


> flight crew just running away after landing

Why not immigrate legally instead of that?


https://www.dawn.com/news/1817431/another-pia-cabin-crew-mem...

    > Officials say this trend is due to the flexible Canadian law, which offers asylum after entering the country.

    > Last month, a similar incident was reported when an air hostess failed to report for the return flight after arriving in Canada.

    > Last year, at least seven PIA cabin crew members went missing in Canada while performing flight duties.

    > According to the national carrier’s spokesman, one of the crew members who had slipped away while on duty some years ago has now settled in Canada and “advises” other crew members mulling asylum.
Extremely hard to immigrate legally as a Pakistani citizen with limited funds; extremely easy (as flight crew) to legally enter Canada, escape from hotel and seek asylum.


Ah, I can understand that.




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