Pakistan International Airlines flight 8303, an Airbus A320, crashed on approach to Karachi-Jinnah International Airport (KHI), Pakistan. The airline stated there were 91 passengers on board and 7 crew members. The flight departed Lahore at 13:05 hours local time (08:05 UTC) and was expected to arrive at Karachi about 14:45 (09:45 UTC). The aircraft was cleared to land on runway 25L. At 14:35 the flight crew radioed that they were going around and requested another ILS approach to runway 25L. The controller instructed the flight to turn left heading 110 and climb to 3000 feet. Four minutes later the flight reported they had "lost engine(s)" and subsequently declared a Mayday. The controller cleared the flight to land with both runways (25L and 25R) available.

The aircraft crashed in a residential area named Model Colony, about 1360 m short of the threshold of runway 25L. The aircraft broke up and a large post-impact fire erupted.

ARY News reported that 76 people have been confirmed dead and three occupants have survived the accident. Rescue work is still in progress and the death toll is likely to rise.

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Corona saved the other big airplane company

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Corona saved the other big airplane company

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As per this video, they may have tried to land without the gear deployed, and performed a go around after the cowlings made contact with the runway. The damage from landing on the engines ultimately causing both to fail. Unbelievable if this is ultimately how this came to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwfkN5M-bSY
Here's a photo of the aircraft just prior to crashing. Note the bottom of the cowlings and the RAT deployed.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYoMGkZWsAAZXQH?format=jpg&name=large

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Strange one for sure.  Landing without the gear down in this day and age is a puzzler.

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Criminy... Here's video of the scrape marks on the runway, in the latest posting from Juan Browne (nom de YouTube "Blancolirio") on the PIA A320 crash, posted today (24-May-2020):
YouTube - Blancoliro "Pakistan Airlines #8303 Runway Evidence - Update #3"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ0LY7ma1cA

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I’m picturing it like some fast handed ace threw up the gear before a solid climb was established?     Maybe in addition to mismanagement of the mode selection?    Dunno, it’s the only scenario I can imagine.

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The Bus gear, again from limited exposure, aren't that fast. The LGCIU (landing gear control interface unit) acts in part as the squat switch and would prevent that, and there are two of them.

Honestly, the easiest explanation is a scrap and go, except the Fans would be jacked up and with possible catastrophic damage to the accessory gear boxes. Once AC1 and AC2 busses were offline, the RAT autodeploys.

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Strange one for sure.  Landing without the gear down in this day and age is a puzzler.

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One could perhaps expect this in a beater 310, but an Airbus?

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How do alarms not sound when landing without gear?  Thought the Airbus had all the computer safety protocols.

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Then the interlock prevents the gear from going down above 260 or 280 knots.

So it seems they botched the approach, ignored the alarm, and got back in the air after smacking the engines down a few times.  

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I feel Airbus is not at fault in this one.

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The thing is that you can hear the gear warning in the ATC transmission.

How did they scrape the pods and then rotate to a climb attitude without scraping the tail?

Very strange!

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Unstable is an understatement!

This was suicidal. It just boggles the mind!

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YouTube is blocked where I'm at...what does it show?

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210kts across the threshold.

Fucking idiots.  Don't ever get on a foreign airline from that part of the world.

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Not all are created the same.  

Same could be said about those who crashed airplanes from the other manufacturer not to long ago.

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As GA dies, and many of the unforgiving jobs that Darwinistically attrited the unlucky or incapable are relegated to history, we are going down that road.

Eventually, the hard won quality aviator the US could produce will be history, and we'll have third world quality folks as well. Our quality spread will be just as broad as theirs.

(??) The reported weather at origin, en-route and at destination airfields was fit to undertake the flight.

(??) On 22 May 2020 PIA flight PK8303 took off from AIIAP Lahore at 13:05 hrs (as per the Lahore ATC recording / transcript). Departure from Lahore and cruising flight were uneventful. The crew did not follow standard callouts and did not observe CRM aspects during most parts of flight.

(??) “Area Control Karachi East” cleared PK8303 for “Nawabshah 2A” arrival procedure (STAR - Standard Terminal Arrival Route as published in AIP and JEPPESEN), and advised to expect ILS approach for runway 25L. The flight was later cleared at pilot’s discretion to report direct MAKLI (a waypoint 15 nautical miles at a radial of 075 from Karachi VOR) and descend to FL100, and later re-cleared for FL50.
The aircraft changed over to “Karachi Approach” and was cleared to descend down further to 3000 ft, by the time it reaches MAKLI.

(??) The aircraft ended up higher than the required descend profile. At MAKLI the aircraft was at 9780 ft and at about 245 knots IAS. In order to manage the descent and lose the additional height, “OPEN DES” mode was selected via the FCU, both autopilots were disengaged and speed brakes were extended.

(??) “Karachi Approach” inquired “confirm track mile comfortable for descend” and later advised to take an orbit, so that the aircraft can be adjusted on the required descend profile. No orbit was executed and the effort to intercept the glide slope and localizer (of ILS) was continued. The FDR indicated action of lowering of the landing gears at 7221 ft at around 10.5 Nautical Miles from Runway 25L.

(??) “Karachi Approach” advised repeatedly (twice to discontinue the approach and once cautioned) about excessive height. Landing approach was not discontinued. However, FDR shows action of raising of the landing gears at 1740 ft followed by retraction of the speed brakes (at a distance slightly less than 05 nautical miles from the runway 25L). At this time, the aircraft had intercepted the localizer as well as the glide slope. Flaps 1 were selected at 243 knots IAS, the landing gears and speed brakes were retracted. Over-speed and EGPWS warnings were then triggered.

(??) Figure hereunder depicts a few parameters of FDR data and the first approach profile of the aircraft in comparison with the required approach profile.

???????? : For the descent path, the altitude has been shifted to start from 84 ft in order to match the altitude of the runway at ground impact.

(??) Since the approach to land was continued, “Karachi Approach” instead of changing over the aircraft to “Aerodrome Control”, sought telephonic landing clearance from the “Aerodrome Control”. The “Aerodrome Control” conveyed a landing clearance of the aircraft (without observing the abnormality that the landing gears were not extended) to “Karachi Approach”. Subsequently “Karachi Approach” cleared the aircraft to land.

(??) At 500 ft, the FDR indicates: landing gear retracted, slat/flap configuration 3, airspeed 220 knots IAS, descent rate 2000 ft/min. According to the FDR and CVR recordings several warnings and alerts such as over-speed, landing gear not down and ground proximity alerts were disregarded. The landing was undertaken with landing gears retracted. The aircraft touched the runway surface on its engines. Flight crew applied reverse engine power and initiated a braking action. Both engines scrubbed the runway at various locations causing damage to both of them. Figures hereunder show selected screenshots of security / CCTV cameras footages of the aircraft engines touching the runway and showing sparks due to scrubbing, along with marks on the runway.

(??) The “Aerodrome Control” observed the scrubbing of engines with the runway but did not covey this abnormality to the aircraft. It was conveyed to the “Karachi Approach” on telephone. Subsequently “Karachi Approach” also did not relay this abnormality to the aircraft.

(??) The landing was discontinued and a go-around was executed. FDR recording
indicates a brief action of selection of landing gear lever to down position, which was immediately followed by its movement to up position. Intention to undertake another ILS approach for landing on runway 25L was conveyed, however shortly after the go-around both engines failed one by one. Ram Air Turbine (RAT) was deployed to power the essential systems. FDR data recording stopped during this timeframe (as per the designed limitation). The aircraft was unable to maintain required height. The aircrew declared the emergency situation that both engines were lost, and transmitted a “Mayday Call”. Evidences from the wreckage indicate reasons for right engine failure, however left engine requires further examination, and landing gear in extended position did not demonstrate any malfunction of the landing gear system.

(??) The aircraft crashed about 1340 meters short from runway 25L. It was a slow speed impact with high angle of attack, with aircraft configuration indicating landing gears extended, slats at step / position 1, and flaps retracted. The said configuration was ascertained and documented from the wreckage at the crash site (as the FDR data recording had stopped earlier).

(??) The aircraft was reportedly serviceable for the said flight; necessary scrutiny of the aircraft maintenance records / documents is under way. Captain and First Officer were adequately qualified and experienced to undertake the said flight; necessary scrutiny of the aircrew records / documents is under way.

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Hopefully GA doesn't die, that sure would suck.  

The US isn't the only producer of quality pilots.  I've flown with (and fly with) British pilots who could rival just about any US pilot I've flown with.  I've flown with French, Taiwanese, Greek, Australian, Israeli, Canadian, and some others I probably can't remember that were more than capable.  

Back to the bus, it is still an airplane, it can be crashed.

More than 30% of civilian pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses and are not qualified to fly, the country's aviation minister revealed Wednesday.

Addressing Pakistan's National Assembly, Ghulam Sarwar Khan said 262 pilots in the country "did not take the exam themselves" and had paid someone else to sit it on their behalf.
"They don't have flying experience," he said.
Pakistan has 860 active pilots serving its domestic airlines -- including the country's Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flagship -- as well as a number of foreign carriers, Khan said.
PIA has grounded all its pilots who hold fake licenses, effective immediately.

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Almost 1 in 3 pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses, aviation minister says

Almost 1 in 3 pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses, aviation minister says

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Almost 1 in 3 pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses, aviation minister says

Almost 1 in 3 pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses, aviation minister says