Pakistan International Airlines flight 8303

In this article, I’m going to tell you the first elements of the investigation that I have learned about the crash of Pakistan International Airlines flight 8303. It’s with sadness that I learned the crash of PIA flight 8303 on May 22. Many questions come to mind: was it due to technical failure? Or was it caused by pilot error? Moreover, it’s important to mention that PIA had just resumed operations since the coronavirus outbreak back in March. I was also astonished because the crashed plane is an Airbus A320, which is one of the planes most used all around the world.

When I saw the video of the crash, which was filmed by a surveillance camera, I thought the crash was due to a stall. Indeed, a stall is defined as a sudden reduction in the lift generated by an aerofoil when the critical angle of attack is reached or exceeded. After investigating the tragedy, I learned about the first elements uncovered by the investigators. The website Flight Radar 24, which indicates the number of planes above us in real time, has recorded important pieces of information about flight 8303, such as the altitude of the plane during the flight. It’s an important clue because it shows the plane’s changes in altitude before the crash. The latter were not normal. Indeed, when a plane is about to land, it flies/descends at a certain angle and loses altitude gradually. But this time, the descent profile was too steep, and therefore the plane lost altitude too quickly. Normally, a 3-degree glideslope is used before landing, but PIA flight 8303’s descent profile was steeper.

Flight 8303 was at 10,000 feet 4 minutes before landing, which is a very high altitude for a plane that is about to land. Moreover, in the conversation between the pilot and the air traffic control tower, you can hear that the air traffic controllers were worried and told the pilot to reduce his altitude. The tower told them that they flew at 10 knots at 7,000 feet, while they should fly at 3,000 feet. Normally, before landing, the descent rate should be 8,000 feet per minute, whereas flight 8303 had a descent rate of 2,500 feet per minute.  The speed of flight 8303 was not normal either before landing. Indeed, the plane should have flown at 160 knots, whereas he flew at 200 knots, which is a very high speed.

The website Aviation Safety shows us also the descent profile of the plane (in blue) and the descent profile of a normal Airbus A320 (in red) in Karachi. You can see a big difference between these two curves.

The investigators have also learned that the pilots forgot to deploy the landing gear of the plane, which is a significant mistake for experienced pilots. Moreover, before the first landing attempt, they didn’t tell air traffic control that they had experienced a technical failure or a problem. After the first attempt, the pilots initiated a go-around, and, a few minutes later, they told air traffic control that both engines failed.  A picture of flight 8303 (see below) shows black markings underneath both engines. The investigators think that these marks were due to the first failed landing attempt. Indeed, the two engines had probably touched the runway, which had damaged them.  For the moment, the investigators think that the crash was due to mistakes made by the pilots, who failed to deploy the landing gear. Eventually, the two engines hit the runway, which damaged them. Without the engines, the pilots didn’t manage to land the plane.