A 37-year-old mystery, satellite image and missing aircraft
“For 37 years, the mountains have kept their secret. Now, a Pakistani researcher believes he may have found what the world failed to locate for nearly four decades: the wreckage of a PIA aircraft that …”
Sabih Ali Rajput claims to have identified the possible remains of flight PK-404 in a remote, snow-covered mountainous region near Tajikistan, after spending two years examining satellite imagery and retracing the aircraft's final journey through Google Earth.
If his findings withstand scrutiny, they could reopen one of the most baffling chapters in Pakistan's aviation history and offer long-awaited answers to families who have spent decades wondering what happened to their loved ones.
Rajput says his investigation involved piecing together the aircraft's route, estimated flight duration, fuel capacity and other available information before scanning satellite images of remote mountain ranges. His search eventually led him to an isolated mountain peak, where he believes the outline of an aircraft wreckage may be visible.
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The claim, however, raises as many questions as it answers. Rajput believes the aircraft may have attempted to turn back towards Gilgit because of bad weather. But if that was the case, how did it end up so far away, potentially towards the Wakhan Corridor and Tajikistan?
The apparent geographical discrepancy is one that aviation experts will need to examine before any conclusions can be drawn. For Rajput, the motivation was simple: an aircraft had disappeared in one of the world's most challenging mountain regions, yet its wreckage had never been found.
The absence of a definitive answer drove him to undertake his own investigation, using publicly available satellite imagery to revisit a mystery that had resisted decades of search efforts. Aviation expert Imran Aslam Khan believes the findings deserve a closer look using modern technology.
He said that if the object identified in the satellite images is established as aircraft wreckage, the government could consider deploying helicopters and mountaineers to investigate the suspected location. The recovery of the wreckage, particularly the black box, could provide crucial clues about what happened during the aircraft's final moments and help establish the cause of its disappearance.
Khan pointed out that the route between Gilgit and Islamabad passes through some of the country's most treacherous mountainous terrain, where weather conditions can change with little warning. Atmospheric disturbances and severe weather around high-altitude mountain ranges can create extremely dangerous flying conditions.
He added that aircraft operating in 1989 lacked the sophisticated weather radar systems available today, making it considerably harder for pilots to navigate sudden weather changes.
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