@BOAC
The site admin claims that "all" and not "selected" posts between certain dates have been lost. That's quite normal and that forum isn't the first one to have experienced such sorts of thing. Basically, if your server crashes, you can only recover data till the last back-up you had and some posts will definitely be lost. I have had experiences of forums loosing a months worth of posts and even "selective posts" if the site is hosted on multiple servers sharing posts and only one of them crashes.
Now why would someone (presumably from what i gather) living outside pakistan hosting a website outside pakistan give a damn about PIA or govt? When shoe-hurlings at the president and "murder plots" but serving ministers couldn't be suppressed, I think you have a wrong (or out-dated) idea about media freedom in pakistan.
@JALAL
There is no doubt that the late Captain was a religious person. The question is : was he fasting on the day of the flight? and did he stay awake all night? According to his family (from interview by media, I believe Mubashir Luqman Show but not sure since I have watched dozens of shows on the crash), he was informed of his duty the previous evening and went to bed at 10.30pm. I ain't advocating for the captain, but letting everyone know the other side of the story.
There are loads and loads of these - 'informed 2hrs before flight', ATC recording saying ' we can see the margala', ' We have the airport in sight', Blackwater trying to crash into kahuta (nuclear facility), anti-aircraft shot it down, etc. Pardon me if I don't take that seriously.
Regarding why would a pilot fly into the Margalla hills...ofcourse that's the whole point of the investigation. While you could see the hills (from ground level), its possible the plane was in the clouds.
Even if I were to believe the captain was awake all night and fasting, how does that make both him and the co-pilot miss an obvious sight (which according to you was clearly visible)? A plane is not like a car where you may fall asleep and crash ...unless you both do.
There's two way communication between the captain and ATC, there's a co-pilot, there are warning systems both inside the plane and by ATC. There has to be a series of events that went wrong for such a crash to happen. Its hard to believe that a crew in a sophisticated jet could fly into a mountain that is "clearly visible", even if its captain wasn't at his physical/mental peak.
I doubt the mountains were visible (to him) and would be suspicious of both navigational error (pushing the wrong buttons) and ATC handling. Also he wasn't approaching RNWY 12 "again" but approaching RNWY 30.
Btw, CAA ( civil aviation authority) now has a new chairman...a former pilot of PIA. And IIRC, this is the first time its being headed by an (ex?) commercial pilot. Let's hope this will open up the CAA a bit and we could see more transparency in the future.