Rawalpindi: Over 140 passengers on a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight to Karachi on Sunday refused to travel after its pilot made two attempts to continue the journey, but failed to return to Islamabad due to a technical snag in the plane. was forced to
Finally, national flag carrier flight PK-301, an Airbus A320, took off for the third time at around 5.30 pm for Karachi, with only 17 passengers on board.
The passengers exchanged words with the crew members and the provincial leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and criticized the government and airline management for causing inconvenience to them.
Passengers were panicked and angry, while PIA staff continued to insist that nothing was wrong with the plane.
More than 140 out of 160 people refused to travel
According to sources, Captain Amjad Malik, who flew from Islamabad to Karachi, took off on Sunday at 12.30 pm with 160 passengers on board but was forced to return after half an hour when the plane’s inertial navigation system – a Equipment that can accurately guide an aircraft without any reference to the ground – some problem developed.
Unconfirmed sources said the plane had to return to Islamabad after developing an “engine problem”.
The captain landed the plane safely at Islamabad International Airport, where engineers tried to fix the problem. However, an interesting situation arose when the captain disappeared after landing. After some time, he was found by airline officials. The captain then made another attempt to land the plane at around 4 pm.
Again, the flight was diverted back to Islamabad as the fault could not be corrected. This created panic among the passengers, who demanded the crew members to open the doors to disembark them, as most of them were unwilling to continue with their journey.
At this stage, the passengers protested and exchanged words with the crew members and the PTI leader. He forced the crew members to open the doors so that they could disembark.
Engineers were called again to re-examine the problem, but they insisted that the issue had been fixed and the captain was under stress.
A video posted on social media showed some passengers arguing with crew members and thanking God for a safe landing. “We thanked God for blessing us with a new life,” the passengers said.
A PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan said the flight had landed at Islamabad airport for the second time as the captain had decided to return due to security reasons. “We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to the passengers,” he said. “There is no agreement on precautionary measures.”
After maintenance, the aircraft left for its destination and landed safely at Jinnah International Airport at around 7.15 pm.
Published in Dawn, December 13, 2021