Mayday Mayday Mayday

The word MayDay before the crash of ill fated Pakistan International Airline, Air Bus A320 Flight PK 8303, was only known by the personnel of the aviation industry and the common man has very little know how about the word. But after the crash of the aircraft on a residential area just touching distance from Karachi Aairport, made the word very common across the country. In the grisly accident 97 people lost thier lives and two people survived miraculously.
MayDay is the word used around the globe to make a distress call via Radio Communication. The word MayDay was the idea of Frederick Mockford who was a senior Radio Officer at Croydon airport in London and it sounded like the French word m’aider which means ‘help me’.
The Government of Pakistan has constituted a four member committee to investigate the tragic crash of the PIA aircraft. But before the committee could start the proceedings their is a hue and cry from different aviation experts and also from some of the political parties that this body cannot do an independent investigation and also several questions were raised such as a member from PALPA (association of pilots) should be included in the committee. All criticism is because the history of all the previous investigation about the crash of PIA planes were not satisfactory and their findings could not reach to the depth of the accidents. A French team of experts send by the manufacturer of the lost aircraft has reached Karachi to find the cause of the incident.Pakistan International Airline experienced its first recorded hull loss in 1956 when a Douglas DC 3 flew into mountain on February that year while on a cargo flight from Gilgit to Islamabad in poor weather, killing the three crew members on board. Since then the airliner has lost thirty air craft in crashes and events, including the crash at Model Colony, Karachi. The aviation industry globally are focussing more on safety standards than before as commercial air travel has a reputation for being a safe way to travel. Since 2017, there has been more than four billion passengers flying annually on nearly forty million scheduled flights. Moreover, both these figures have seen significant increases every year since 2009. At the same time, number of fatalities from commercial air travel accidents has been decreasing on an average.
The trust of the passengers on air travel is increasing globally and now our aviation industry should come up with more strategic approach to provide quality safety standards to the passengers. The reputation of PIA is not the same as it was thirty or forty years back, as it was considered one of the best airline in the world. What ever may be the reason for the descending performance of PIA it is high time to bring the confidence of the airline travellers by executing a comprehensive plan for PIA of safety and services, so in future we don’t hear MayDay MayDay MayDay, messages.