Flying high

A PIA pilot was sentenced to nine months in prison in the UK in 2013, after he was found to have three times the legal amount of alcohol in his blood while preparing to take off for Islamabad from the Leeds Bradford airport. The judge of the Leeds Crown Court had observed that “...if he had not been stopped...it could have had potential catastrophic consequences”.
Meanwhile, here a pilot of a private airline who had blood alcohol level well over the limit totals an aircraft while landing hard at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore. An enquiry holds the pilot responsible and the Civil Aviation Authority registers a criminal case against him. True to form a ‘brother’ pilot, who was a member of the enquiry committee, comes to his rescue, saying that he was hardly over the limit and the fault lies with the airline which is using old and overloaded planes. Overloaded? Pray how does an overloaded plane take off and after using a good amount of its fuel still remain overloaded while landing? A better example of the proverbial carpenter blaming his tools would be hard to come by.
Farid Nawaz
Islamabad