There was a special program on a local tv last night about the crash with the CEO of Airblue and director of CAA (civil aviation authority). Nothing breakthrough in it, just the usual questions. A few points below (most of which we already knew)
- The captain, though had a 36 hr break since his last flight, but he wasn't supposed to fly. He was just called in 2 hrs before since the pilot on duty had to excuse himself. There was also a question raised on whether the captain that flew was on standby or not.
- The black boxes are already in France for decoding and the report will come in 2-3 days (doesn't mean it will be shared publicly though).
- At the time of landing, there were 5 planes waiting to land at the airport, and the doomed airblue flight was 2nd in the queue.
- A 5 member team from Airbus also participating in the investigation, and a person(s) from the engine manufacturer also visited the crash site.
- The plane was equipped with an EGPWS
- There is a senior Airblue pilot in the investigation team too and the lead investigators are well qualified with lots of experience.
- The main focus of the program, however, was why CAA is doing the investigation and why isn't there an independent body such as NTSB and even if there isn't, why isnt there parallel investigations? given that it (CAA) could be a party to the investigation. Also the issues of the qualification of both ATC and CAA officials were raised as well as their training but just the usual 'they are well trained' answer.