On This Day

Crash of Pakistan International Airlines flight 8303

On the 22nd of May 2020, a Pakistan International Airlines A320 on approach to Karachi slammed into a residential neighborhood just short of the runway, killing 97 of the 99 people on board and one on the ground. Only two survivors miraculously escaped the burning rubble.

The story that eventually emerged from the wreckage defies rational comprehension: after an approach so steep it bordered on madness, the crew set the plane down on the runway apparently without having extended the landing gear, causing the aircraft to slide on its engines for nearly a kilometer. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, after skidding across the ground for 18 seconds, the crew managed to pull the plane back into the air and climb to 3,000 feet — only for both damaged engines to fail, leaving the aircraft with insufficient power to return to the airport. The annals of aviation history contain few comparable accidents. In fact, the sequence of errors, reckless decisions, and baffling misbehavior that enabled the disaster surpasses all but the most irredeemable blunders of the past, calling into question Pakistan International Airlines’ ability to carry passengers with anything close to an acceptable level of safety. And in order to fix this deep-seated rot, sweeping changes are most likely needed — not only to safety rules and enforcement, but to the culture of patronage and corruption whose tendrils reach into every corner of Pakistan’s troubled flag carrier.