What to believe?

Hundreds of reporters and camera people have worked overtime for two days to gather information about the Bhoja Airline’s flight from Karachi that crashed near Islamabad on Friday evening, a couple of minutes before it was to land, killing all 127 people on board. Dozens of editors have pored over the information before it is presented to us, to make sure it is factual and corroborated by other available data and expertise. Thanks to the efforts of all these journalists, here is what we do know:

The incident took place in Hussainabad; it was actually Kural Chowk; the plane crashed near Chaklala; the crash site was 10 km from Islamabad airport; it was 15 km from the airport.

The plane landed hard on the ground, ballooned up, went through the trees and came down on a roof top; the plane blew up in air and the debris came raining down; it caught fire in the air but exploded on the ground; there was a mayday call seconds before landing; the pilot did not communicate any problem.

The cause of the accident is weather-related; the plane was struck by lightening; there’s frequent gunfire in the area and the plane may have been hit by a bullet; the plane was not air-worthy; the captain was new in the job and may have mishandled; the airline is a cheap operation that prefers to put hundreds of lives in danger rather than taking a detour and using up extra fuel; the cause of accident may not be known until a year.

According to Sunday papers the remains of all 127 dead bodies have been found (Express); search for 11 bodies still continues (several); 118 bodies have been identified and 116 handed over (The News); 117 handed over (Jang); 116 bodies recovered of which 108 have been identified and handed over (Dawn); 116 bodies identified and handed over (Express Tribune).

The doomed Boeing 737 aircraft was 27-28 years old (Dawn quoting FIR); the plane was 40 years old (Express Tribune editorial).

Bhoja Airline was licensed by the government of Nawaz Sharif and therefore Noon League is responsible for the tragedy; the airline operations were suspended during the Musharraf government and remained so till last month when the present government allowed it to resume operation, and therefore the responsibility for the crash lies with Gillani government.

 And the sickest bit: A relative of Air Blue victims two years ago, advising the relatives of Bhoja victims not to bury their dead before confirming through DNA tests that the remains given to them are indeed those of their loved ones. ‘When I went to Pims hospital to collect the remains, I was told to take any one I like,’ the man said on a TV channel.

Short history of a near exclusive

1041 PM: My daughter walks into the TV room trying hard to look ill. ‘Can I not go to school tomorrow because I am feverish. I think it’s dengue’? Before I could say ‘no way’ the door shuts with a bang, as if hit by a gust of wind. ‘OMG what was that? Did you hear that? It must be a bomb blast’ she says with renewed hope.
1043: The same ticker appears on several news channels: A blast heard in Islamabad. Location is being ascertained.
1045: It’s a private laboratory in Blue Area, says Aaj. Geo agrees and adds the information that glass windows are shattered in nearby buildings. Express hasn’t gone beyond identifying the area. It’s the ARY reporter who finally comes live with definitive information: ‘it’s Envoy hotel’, but the ticker at the bottom of the screen disagrees: it’s City hotel, it’s City hotel … it keeps yelling in a loop.
1050: Express ends the suspense by showing live video of the scene of blast. It is indeed City hotel in Blue Area, and there is definitely broken glass on the ground. The frame also shows a woman sitting calmly in a palanquin, Idi Amin style, and is being carried by two men who don’t seem to know where to take her. Still no sign of blood and gore.
1051: Majority of channels have disrupted their talk-shows to take the viewers live to the scene with a proud ‘exclusive’ displayed across the TV screens in water mark. Reporters are frantically conveying information: the blast occurred on the 3rd floor. It was 4th floor. It was top floor of the six-storey building. ‘So as you heard our reporter there’s been an explosion on the ground floor of … repeats the Sama newscaster. There’s also disagreement on the number of injured; they are either 2, 4 or 5, but there’s definitely a woman among them. Could she be the fair version of Idi Amin?
1055: It seems the source of blast was a pesky gas pipe. But there isn’t even a matchstick flame in sight. Excitement melts into discernable irritation, but the News One newscaster persists: ‘Are you sure there’s no crater or severed head or limbs … like in a planted bomb or a suicide attack?’ The reporter thinks a while and then says confidently: I can confirm that the injured men looked Afghans’. Meanwhile, PTV is as calm as ever, telling its viewers how significant the first day of APC has been, with no mention of the near-exclusive incident just half a kilometre down the road.
My daughter’s excitement is gone too. She seems very disappointed … and ill again. She looks at me as if deciding whether or not to stick with dengue, but then gives up and leaves.
TV journalists in Quetta must be smiling at their hapless colleagues in Islamabad. To know why, rewind to the morning of September 7 in Quetta:
There’s been a real terrorist attack and the entire national media is at work. Four TV channels among them claim their footage to be ‘exclusive’ while streaming or replaying different angles and shots of the same incident. These are: ARY, Geo, Express and Express 24/7.
Perhaps the fear of having their images stolen is the reason the editors choose to stamp them? But then faced with the same concern, Duniya and Samaa simply insert a watermark of their logo. And News One and Aaj do’t feel the need to do even that.
The Islamabad-based journalists of the ‘Exclusive Club’ got to wait for another opportunity.