Authorities told to lock away PK-356 flight data -DAWN


21 January 2004	Wednesday	28 Ziqa'ad 1424

Authorities told to lock away PK-356 flight data
By Mohammad Asghar

RAWALPINDI, Jan 20: Directives have been issued to the airport authorities not to bring on record the data pertaining to the landing and diversion of Lahore-Islamabad national flag carrier flight to Peshawar on June 17 bringing the government and opposition parliamentarians and high-ranking officials, a source told Dawn.

Flight PK-356 of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) after landing at Islamabad International Airport on January 17 was not allowed to disembark its passengers and was diverted to Peshawar.

Initially, the airport authorities had cited bomb hoax as being the sole reason for the diversion of the flight to Peshawar and the second flight (PK-362) to Multan. However, when the bomb disposal squad was contacted, they denied having received any such complaint from the airport authorities on that day.

A source at the airport said weather was partially cloudy but visibility was clear and flight operation was not stopped. He said PK-301 for Karachi took off from Islamabad airport on its scheduled time at 10 am on January 17.

The source said the take-off of PK-301 also cast doubts on the claims made by the authorities concerned that there was a bomb hoax and VVIP movement at the airport. The source said PK- 301 was ready to take off for Karachi at 10 am when the Lahore- Islamabad flight (PK-356) landed at Islamabad airport and taxied for parking.

The Boeing 737 that arrived from Lahore was stopped at Bay 2 where it remained parked for about an hour, but nobody was allowed either to fix stairs or to refuel the plane. Captain Shahid Burki was directed to take the plane to Peshawar after about an hour. However, the flight was allowed to return to Islamabad at about 2.30 pm.

Similarly, the second national flag carrier, PK-362, arriving from Karachi was also diverted to Multan, due to what the authorities said "operational reasons" before it entered the Islamabad airspace.

The PIA manager public relations, Mohammad Latif, told Dawn that the Lahore-Islamabad flight, PK-356, was diverted to Peshawar due to "operational reasons".