The Jinnah Hospital's post-mortem report of the seven employees of Gerry's Dnata who unfortunately died during the terrorists' attack on Jinnah Airport terminal1 concluded that the deaths occurred approximately between 3:00am and 9:00am on June 09, 2014.
The hospital received the bodies at 6:00am on June 10. The post-mortem report confirmed that the time of deaths of the victims of terrorism was between 24-30 hours before the time of post-mortem. CAA's spokesman said that this should rest the controversy in the section of the media that these tragic deaths were the result of the delayed rescue operation at the Gerry's Dnata's cold storage and the warehouse.
The timeline of the CAA efforts to control the fire caused by the terrorists as given here shows that there was no negligence by the CAA in starting efforts to extinguish the fire at the cold storage and warehouse.
-- The fire started due to the terrorists' attack at around 11:25pm on Sunday, June 8. The CAA immediately moved its fire tenders towards the site, but they came under fire from the terrorists who were hiding in the cargo area. One CAA employee was injured and the fire fighting team had to retreat.
-- At around 2:00am a second attempt retreated as they came under fire. At 3:42am a third attempt was made, which continued fire fighting till 5:50pm.
-- The fire had flared up by the time ASF and Rangers declared that all terrorists were killed and it was safe to resume fire extinguishing work.
-- Going by the early reports from Gerry's Dnata and the media the search was started for the missing people inside the cold storage, as soon as the fire was controlled.
-- Search and Rescue operation of the cold storage was attempted and completed at 7:50pm on June 09. No bodies were found inside. Because of the fire the building had collapsed and there were strong fumes of chemicals.
-- The fire continued to simmer at various locations for the next two days.
-- The charred bodies of the seven victims of the terrorist were recovered by the CAA at around 5:30am, on 10th June from the Gerry's office. The post-mortem report confirms the time between death and post-mortem as 24-30 hours, which means deaths occurred approximately between 3:00 am and 9:00am on June 09, 2014.
There was no question of delay in the rescue as the CAA fire tenders moved immediately to extinguish the fire if and when such incidents happen irrespective of the fact whether any human being is trapped in it or not. That is the standard operations procedure.
It should be noted that though the crisis-time senior management was busy behind the scene in many activities for example: informing all the flights in the air that airport is closed and redirecting others to alternate airports; informing many airports from where flights were expected; evacuating passengers who were in the planes and lounges at Jinnah terminal, helping and assisting the security agencies.
All the members of CAA management and the staff worked around the clock during and post- terrorist attack as per the SOPs for which they are fully trained.-PR
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