PESHAWAR, Sept 11: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction with a sketchy Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) report about special safety audit of all passenger aircraft of PIA and private airliners and ordered production of a comprehensive report before the next hearing on Oct 16.

It also asked CAA to submit a certified copy of the report of re-investigation by international aviation experts into the 2010 Airblue plane crash.

The orders were issued by a bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaiser during the hearing into a writ petition jointly filed by Marvi Memon and family members of some passengers of the Airblue plane, which crashed in Islamabad on July 28, 2010, killing all 152 aboard.

Petitioners have prayed the court to order independent inquiry into the crash and provision of appropriate compensation to the affected families.

The bench adjourned the hearing as senior lawyer for Airblue Waseem Sajjad didn’t turn up but requested in writing for adjournment of the case for being busy with the Supreme Court.

The petitioners’ counsel, Omar Farooq Adam, said around four months had passed when the re-investigation of the plane crash was conducted, but so far, CAA had not submitted the report.

Senior legal advisor of CAA Obaidur Rehman Abbasi said so far, the authority had not received the report regarding the Airblue crash and they would submit the same after receiving it from the investigators of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation). He added that CAA had not been hiding anything from the court and had so far complied with each and every order.

He said two international aviation experts had arrived in Pakistan on June 3 and had completed their investigation on June 8. He added that the experts had stated that they would submit their report within 40 days but had so far not submitted it.

Tanveerul Islam, lawyer for the defence ministry, said as soon as the ministry received the re-investigation report, it would be submitted to the court.

The re-investigation was conducted on the order of the high court as it had earlier expressed dissatisfaction over the previous inquiry conducted by the Safety Investigation Board of CAA wherein the errors by the pilot and inclement weather were held responsible for the air crash.

About the safety audit, Mr Abbasi stated that the report submitted by them explained different aspects of the safety audit but if the court was not satisfied with it the CAA would submit another report.

The bench directed Omer Adam to file indemnity bonds along with succession certificates of the legal heirs of the deceased passengers so that compensation could be paid to them. The bench observed that under the Succession Act it was mandatory to submit indemnity bonds so as to ensure transparency in payment of compensation.

So far, the Airblue has paid compensation to the tune of Rs5.5 million to around 100 families of the deceased passengers.

In the safety audit report, CAA requested the court to dispose of the petition or, in alternative delete CAA and the defence ministry from the list of respondents.

It said shakedown inspection of entire serviceable aircraft belonging to all airlines had been carried out by a joint inspection team comprising members from CAA airworthiness directorate and airlines quality assurance department.