Corona Daily 441: Planes Can’t Just Fly

On 22 May, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight 8303 from Lahore to Karachi crashed killing all but two on board. The wheels didn’t open out when the pilot tried to land. In his Mayday call, he said the engines had failed, and the landing gear had problems. The plane landed in a residential area in Karachi, destroying eighteen houses. The 2004 Airbus A-320 was last checked on 21 March, and was declared fit to fly till 5 November 2020. The Pilots and crew were well qualified.

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During a lockdown, many people run the engines of their cars every week, some every day. An aircraft is a far more intricate mechanism than a car.

An estimated 70% of the world’s fleet is currently grounded. Parking is expensive. Delhi airport charges 1000$ per plane per day. US airlines are shuttling many planes for long-term storage. You can’t simply park and cover planes. Active parking includes running the engines every week, running major systems and maintenance. Oils and everything else that can be recirculated must be recirculated.

Qantas, advertised as the safest airline, has parked its planes in Australia’s major airports. The crew regularly hoses down the exterior, rotates wheels, changes tyres, starts the engines and inserts moisture absorbers in them to lower the humidity.

Many grounded planes will never fly again. US airlines will collectively retire 800-1000 aircraft this year, because they would be out of action for too long. China Airlines have 200 new-generation, long-haul, wide-body airliners they won’t need for the next five years. Parts of the retired planes are used or sold. This is called the tearing down process. Whatever remains is scrapped, and beer cans made out of the scrap metal.

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Both people and planes have been locked down for two months. Planes grounded for two months first need to be tested by flying them without passengers.

Unfortunately, the aviation laws in Pakistan and India require such a test only if the aircraft is stuck in a hangar for a long time. If the plane was parked under the blue sky, no such test is required. A test flight costs 40,000 $ in India. Naturally, the bankrupt airlines are unwilling to incur that cost. They will risk flying planes that are not airworthy.

Pilots and crew who have not worked for 2-3 months are required to get fresh flying hours. These are called recency requirements. Pilots are expected to make up hours in flight simulators before entering the actual cockpit. Did pilots in Pakistan and India do this during the lockdown? Only they know.

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India plans to begin domestic flights tomorrow, 25 May. Indian planes have been silent for two months in humid weather. Was anybody working on starting the engines, rotating tyres, recirculating oils regularly? There are no reports about that.  

As passengers, all we can do is to avoid air travel in airlines that we suspect don’t run test flights.

The lockdown has been a unique thing to aviation. Its focus has been on disinfection, sanitization, keeping the middle seats empty. If the plane crashes, all those precautions come to nothing.

Ravi