Pakistan Air Line Pilots Association (PALPA) has threatened to withdraw all cooperation with the management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) if federal minister for aviation Ghulam Sarwar Awan did not intervene to ensure protective measures for the crew.
In a letter sent to Ghulam Sarwar Awan, PALPA alleged that PIA management was not paying heed to its multiple communiqués. The letter said that despite its extended cooperation and multiple requests to the PIA management, crew was being exposed to a very dangerous situation with far-reaching effects on the crew and their families' health.
It said that the crew had continuously been informing the management of its failure to implement the SOPs of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) and PIA and alleged that the PCAA had become a silent spectator during the ongoing crisis.
Furthermore, the letter said that the mismanagement and negligence of PIA had compromised the health and safety of passengers and flight crew and sent four captains' debriefs to the minister in order to make him realized the gravity of the situation and asked for his intervention.
On Sunday (April 5), PALPA had advised its members not to operate any flight until further notice in order to express its resentment over compromising safety and violation of the SOP to avoid COVID-19 threats during recently operated humanitarian flights by PIA.
The captains in their debriefs stated that the aircraft was disinfected by a homemade solution through used and dirty cloth instead of Lysol spray due to shortage of antibacterial sprays.
They also expressed reservations over number of shortcomings as against the PCAAL and airline operational SOPs, saying that no masks, gloves and hand sanitizers were provided to the cockpit crew on arrival; no "AFT" row of seats were designated for the purpose of quarantine area; no scanners to monitor body temperature was provided onboard, etc. However, a PIA spokesman confirmed that flight operations at Islamabad and Lahore were going on uninterruptedly.