The preliminary investigation report into the May 22 PIA plane crash in Karachi concluded that the cockpit crew and the air traffic controller were responsible for the deadly incident that claimed 97 lives, sources said Monday.

According to 24NewsHD TV channel, the report pointed out that the pilot was overconfident and did not follow the procedure, as he ignored the instructions given by the air traffic controller.

But the report also mentioned that the air traffic controller should have stopped the plane from going into the air again when the engines had touched the runway during the botched landing attempt.

The approach tower did not give switch over to the control tower at Jinnah International Airport and kept the frequency to itself, it added.

The report was submitted to the Aviation Division on Monday by Air Commodore Usman Ghani who is the head of the Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board.

Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had promised that the preliminary report would be presented before the Parliament on June 22.

There has been severe criticism of the government and the PIA, especially by the PPP, for declaring the pilot responsible for the incident even before the probe was formally launched.

These fears were expressed by party leaders like Saeed Ghani and Senator Sherry Rehman, saying it was an attempt to make the dead pilot a scapegoat for the organisational failure.

Both PPP and PALPA (Pakistan Airline Pilots Association) had rejected the probe team and demanded inclusion of pilots’ representatives in the process.

This provisional report has been prepared with the information gathered through the cockpit voice recorder, flight data recorder and debris collected after the plane crash, the sources said.

It also contains the CCTV footage of the belly landing and the flight record obtained from the air traffic controller.

However, the detailed report would be possible only after the French experts submits their findings after fully analysing the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.

Soon after the plane crash, an 11-member Airbus team had arrived in Karachi from France and investigated the matter on ground for over five days.