KARACHI: The Investigation Committee headed by Air Commodore Noor Elahi Bajwa with Bashir Jan Muhammad and Ahmed Chinoy as members, suggests pertinent measures for the government and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) recommends that there should be a designated department for handling emergencies and help create preconditions favourable for the safety of personnel and infrastructure.
The Committee, formed by the Prime minister to investigate into the circumstances under which precious lives were lost at Karachi Airport, has noted that agencies like ASF, fire fighters, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are not equipped to handle such sort of exceptional circumstances, which prevailed not only in Karachi but throughout the country.
The Investigation Committee headed by Air Commodore Noor Elahi Bajwa with Bashir Jan Muhammad and Ahmed Chinoy as members, noted that though airport was already under threat, but on the contrary the authorities and cargo handling agents were neither trained nor equipped to handle such emergencies unlike modern airports of the developed countries.
The committee in its report hopes that government and CAA will implement these guidelines to avoid such incidents as the country is already in warlike situation and undergoing difficult time. Committee also hopes that all concerned departments/authorities would play their role more effectively to avoid recurrence of this nature.
Committee has recommended suitable compensation for the diseased families and also advised the owner of Gerry's Dnata cargo to do the needful in this time of need and also to look into the possibility of providing job opportunity for their immediate family member.
A regrettable tragedy occurred between the night of 8 & 9 June, 2014 when the terrorist attacked the Jinnah international Airport, Karachi (Terminal-1) which resulted into loss of precious lives and property due to terrorism and subsequent tire in premises of Gerry’s Dnata Cargo Complex.
The committee found that information about cold storage was miscounted and was completely incorrect. The committee went into the details that those 08 persons were actually trapped inside the office of Garry’s Dnata Cargo Complex. This has also been confirmed from the various agencies like ASF, Police Ranger and Army as well. Therefore the impression about cold storage was not correct and misleading for the rescue team. Moreover, the bodies were also found from the office of Gerry’s Dnata Cargo Complex which was located 150 Feet away from the cold storage area.
Committee, through forensic lab, examined that the contents stored in the cargo warehouse, which revealed that it included lithium batteries of mobile phones in huge quantity, which actually added fuel to the fire remained basic cause of fire spread. Moreover, presence of dangerous goods and other materials was also instrumental in spreading of fire.