Looking Through the Fog

Tragic news today. Wednesday morning, a Pakistani passenger plane crashed into the Himalayan foothills near Islamabad, allegedly due to the thick amount of fog and "intense" amount of rain. Considering that there are more donkey-riding related deaths per year in the world than there are plane-related, one might feel the need to examine this immensely unfortunate occurrence a little closer.

The fact that six members of the Youth Parliament Pakistan were onboard warrants further investigation. Pakistani authorities, while not ruling out the possibility of it having been an attack, officially blame the crash on weather conditions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/world/asia/29pstan.html?_r=1&hp

If you take a look at today's New York Times article, a couple things might jump out at you. I will attempt to collect the pieces of what could possibly be a very disturbing puzzle.

• While aviation experts blame the faultiness of the airport's autopilot landing system for the crash. Mohammad Haroon, managing director of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), a man who has been flying for 34 years, says that since pilots always manually fly through bad weather, it must've been due to an error by the pilot.
• And yet, Hashim Raza Garvaizi, a captain for PIA, was quoted as saying he knew the pilot and that he had an impeccable record. One of the pilots, Pervaiz Iqbal Chaudhry, had more than 25,000 hours of flying under his belt from a 35-year career.
• While authorities blame the fog, the last recorded exchange between the pilot and the airport's dispatcher would suggest differently. The dispatcher warned the pilot that he was flying away from the runway, the pilot responded saying "I can see the runway", the dispatcher then tells the pilot to turn left because the plane was heading towards the hills, and the dispatcher replies with "we can see it".
• It was Airblue's first crash as a company since it began in 2004. The plane, built in 2000, had made a total of 13,500 flights, and Airblue was quoted as stating it did not have a single problem in its operational history.
• Three separate witnesses claim they watched from the ground as the plane crashed. One of them said it was flying at the height of a four-story building. He also claimed to have witnessed the explosion and even the black smoke the rose thereafter. One would think that if a man from the ground could see black smoke rising from the "highest" mountain, the fog couldn't have been thick enough to shield the view of the entire mountain from the pilot.
• Another witness claims to have watched the crash while on a family outing in the hills outside Islamabad. Thick fog? Intense rain? One would think these reported conditions would not be the type to invite a family out for bonding time in the great outdoors. The witness was quoted as saying "The plan had lost balance, and then we saw it going down."

http://www.pildat.org/youthparliament/AboutYPP.asp

The link above is the website for the Youth Parliament of Pakistan. It is a political, left-wing organization that works to muster awareness and involvement among the youth of Pakistan. The main aim of the YPP is to bring an end to the religious intolerance and extremism that has plagued the country for years. In their mission statement, they stress that one of their most imperative objectives is making the government accountable for its actions.

Pakistan has been in the spotlight of scrutiny since the release of the Afghan War Diary. It would not be outlandish to conclude that a country capable of domesticating known terrorists, such as Osama bin Laden, would also be capable of arranging acts of terror to preserve its own government. If those in power want to stay in power, nothing can be put past them. Especially when the means can be so easily utilized.

http://www.pildat.org/youthparliament/officebearers.asp

The above link is a listing of Youth Parliament Pakistan positions, ranked from highest to lowest. Three of the six members killed in the crash held three out of the six highest positions in the organization, including the highest position: Youth Prime Minister. Opportunity arises when all the eggs are in one basket.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope there was fog. I hope there was rain. I hope those six Youth Parliament members were not punished for committing their lives to the betterment of their country. Six voices were silenced today. I can only hope that six new voices will emerge to take their place. I can only hope that this tragedy does not instill the fear that would imprison the potential for a democratic Pakistan.

Rest in Peace:

Hassan Javed Khan - Youth Prime Minister

Syeda Rabab Zehra Naqvi - Youth Information Minister

Prem Chand - Youth Minister for Culture, Sports, and Youth Affairs

Bilal Jamaee - Youth Shadow Minister for Information

Owais bin Laiq - Member Youth Parliament Standing Committee on Information

Syed Arsalan Ahmad - Member Youth Parliament Standing Committee on Information

...and every passenger aboard plane A321.

-Little Brother, Big Mouth-