THIS is apropos the editorial `Goat to the rescue` (Dec 20). The goat was slaughtered for the safety of the aircraft, thus making the unfortunate goat a scapegoatfor the technical staff of the PIA.
In any airline operation, safety is the name of the game. The safest airlines have to work hard to be at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of new advanced aircraft.
Australian airline, Qantas, is the safest airline in the world in which no fatal accident has tal(en place in the last 95 years of its operation.
Not a single person has ever died on a Qantas flight till date. This airline stands out in safety enhancements and best practices.
This is despite the fact that no goat was ever slaughtered before the take-off of any of its aircraft.
Instead of choosing a goat for sacrifice, I would rather recommend that a shakedown inspection of the manpower should be undertaken in PIA to get rid of all those who were inducted into this airline on political basis.
The airline has the highest employee per plane ratio standing at 780 employees per plane. Compared to this, Turkish Airline is far lower at 81. The airline should get rid of this dead wood.
Air-Cdre (r) Azfar A. Khan Rawalpindi (2) ON Dec 22, PIA flights from Lahore to Karachi, Multan to Karachi, Multan to Islamabad, and Islamabad to Karachi were cancelled.
We were advised by PIA that this was due to the unavailability of one aircraft which had been assigned for VIP duties and is in Bosnia.
Thousands of PIA passengers have been inconvenienced, the already bankrupt PIA has lost millions of rupees in lost revenues and taxpayers have to pick up the tab running into tens of millions of rupees for the comfort of the VIPs.
