KARACHI: A senior pilot of the Pakistan International Airlines has flown a Lahore-Toronto flight without taking mandatory rest, compromising air safety and putting the lives of hundreds of passengers on board in danger, it emerged here on Saturday.

Sources said Capt Imran Butt operated the long-haul flight on Friday morning (Jan 29, 2016) without taking the mandatory 24-hour rest at Lahore, where he had arrived by a PIA flight from Karachi late on Thursday night (Jan 28).

A document prepared by PIA’s Passenger Handling Services Division for Flight 306 (Jan 28), which took off from Karachi in the evening and landed at Lahore in the night, shows the name of Capt Imran at serial No 79 in the passengers’ list. Another PIA document, showing the names of the crew members who operated Flight 797 (Lahore-Toronto) on Jan 29 in the morning, shows the name of pilot Imran Butt at serial No 2, just below the name of the other pilot, Akeel Akhtar.

The sources said that if the time that lapsed between Imran Butt’s flight landing at Lahore on Thursday night and his transfer to a hotel and then his pickup for duty from the hotel on Friday morning is added, his rest time at the Lahore hotel would be less than even 12 hours against the mandatory 24 hours.

The sources said that the issue of FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitation) violation by Capt Butt was even more serious because he till a few weeks back had served as the chief pilot in the PIA, setting a bad example for his juniors.

Responding to Dawn queries, PIA spokesperson said the PIA had scheduled the duty of pilot Imran Butt according to the CAA rules and regulation relating to the FDTL concerning rest time before the long-haul flight. If he had not followed the schedule and had taken some other flight from Karachi to Lahore, the airline did not know that at present. However, the airline would look into the issue and if any irregularity had been committed, legal action would be initiated against the violator. The spokesperson said he would update this reporter as well, which he has not done.

The sources said that in another incident sometime back when another PIA pilot violated the FDTL the CAA imposed a fine of Rs500,000, but it was later reduced to Rs50,000 and finally the fine was written off.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2016