RAWALPINDI: Two Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials will face disciplinary action for negligence in the wake of an inquiry into the collapse of a passenger bridge at the Islamabad International Airport (IIA).

The CAA inquiry board submitted its inquiry report to the authority’s director general 10 days ago, in which it recommended action against two officials for concealing information. The contractor has also been asked to rebuild the collapsed bridge without cost to the CAA.

Director General Hassan Baig told Dawnt hat disciplinary action has been initiated against two officials associated with the engineering department. They have been served show-cause notices, and further action will be taken in light of their responses.

Mr Baig said that following the committee’s recommendations, the contractor was asked to remove all the defects and shortcomings in its work at IIA using its own resources, including rebuilding the collapsed bridge.

He said: “The defect liability period of M/s Adelte has been extended for a year to remove all defects and to rectify the abnormalities in the design.”

The inquiry committee also criticised the performance of the design consultant and proposed action in this regard according to the agreement.

Inspections of boarding bridges at all airports in the country have also been recommended, along with a stop to the outsourcing of services at airports. The committee has said direct regular recruitments should be made in core areas for all kinds of work at airports.

The boarding bridge in question , bridge no.5, collapsedmoments after it was disconnected from a Gulf Airways flight on Oct 9, 2018. A four-member board of inquiry was constituted to investigate the incident and determine who was reponsible for the collapse.

The board was led by CAA Deputy Director General Syed Amir Mehboob, who was assisted by IIA expansion project director Sadiqur Rehman, Bacha Khan International Airport (BKIA) Airport Manager Omaidur Rehman and BKIA senior director Kamal Khan.

The committee interviews the bridge operator who was hospitalised because of the collapse, as well as other CAA engineers and officials working for the contractor. It was also tasked with ascertaining the damage and cost the CAA and evaluating the stability of other passenger bridges to verify whether the operator handling the bridges was trained and qualified for the job.

Sources said it had emerged during the preliminary inquiry that the passenger bridge was lacking routine maintenance work, which may have caused it to collapse.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2019