ISLAMABAB: Pakistan International Airline (PIA) set another bad precedent here on Sunday when its crew compelled 168 passengers onboard to travel from Islamabad to Karachi in an aeroplane which had visible technical fault.
PK 301 bound to Karachi from Islamabad had some technical issues even before its take off. The passengers got into panic when the engine of the aeroplane started to show some trouble. The passengers started to shout at the crew when the pilot tried to go for take off with faulty aeroplane. A video clip from inside of the aeroplane shows a panic situation had developed on board even prior to take off . The crew could be seen in the video clip arguing with the passengers. Ignoring passengers warnings, the pilot finally managed to take -off, but within minutes he had to take emergency landing at Islamabad airport as aeroplane started to show some trouble in engine in the air. The nightmare for
the passengers of PK 301 did not end up here. The crew again announced to fly the same aeroplane for Karachi. This led to more heated debates on board between the crew and passengers. The frightened passengers wanted to get out of the aeroplane and the crew wanted to take off again withoit taking risk factors to the passengers’ lives into consideration. Finally, the passengers protest worked and the crew open up doors to allow the passengers depart from the aeroplane. After couple of hours, the PIA announced the same flight for Karachi. The terrified 162 passengers refused to get onboard in the same flight. But who cares if passengers get in or not when the PIA crew feels itself right. The same happend in the case of PK 301. It flew from Islamabad to Karachi with only 6 passengers on board. One can reach to the conclusion from PK 301 debacle that the national flag carrier is beyond any accountability.
NEWSMAN and Daily DANISHWAR tried to get response on the issue from its spokesman, but he did not respond to queries sent to him by this correspondent for PIA version.
