Plane escapes disaster at Lahore airport

E-Paper | June 12, 2026

LAHORE: An aircraft of a private airline skidded off the runway at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, forcing the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to close it for flight operations on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

According to a spokesman for the CAA, the private airlines’ flight NL-48 carrying 172 passengers was coming from Karachi. “During landing the aircraft skidded off the runway at about 3.25pm. However, all passengers remained unhurt,” he said.

The main runway was closed for all flights, forcing the PIA and other foreign and private airlines to use the ‘standby runway’.

Civil Aviation closes main runway for flight operations

The passengers who reached the airport to catch their domestic or international flights faced great deal of inconvenience as all flight operations remained suspended for several hours after the incident.

“We were told that our flight to Karachi would depart a couple of hours behind schedule but after waiting for several hours the PIA said the flight had been cancelled,” a passenger, Razzak Ahmed, said.

He wondered why the PIA had cancelled his flight when the flights bound for international destinations were able to leave.

At least five international flights of the PIA were delayed and one Karachi-bound flight was cancelled. “PIA flights to London, Toronto, New York, Paris and Milan were delayed for several hours because of the closure of the main runway,” a PIA spokesman told Dawn.

He said the arrival of at least five foreign airline flights from Gulf and Bangkok had also been delayed because of the mishap.

However, a CAA spokesman said some 18 flights left for their destinations from Lahore airport and 10 arrived. “It is fog that forced the delay of the flights arriving here in the evening and not the closed runway,” he said, adding that equipment was being transported to Lahore from Karachi by the private airline on Wednesday (today) to remove the airplane from the runway.

“An inquiry has been constituted to investigate the incident,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014

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Jaffar

Dec 31, 2014 07:11am

Private airline is Shaheen Air!!!

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Doniya

Dec 31, 2014 07:33am

what is happening to all the pilots all around the world? are they not getting proper training?? 1 pilot has about 300 lives in his hand.

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Abdul

Dec 31, 2014 07:46am

Why can't we say Shaheen Airlines rather than private airlines?

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Imad Qureshi

Dec 31, 2014 07:58am

"An aircraft of private airline"...Why can't you just say Shaheen airlines? I just don't understand the nonsense of our media.

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Omar

Dec 31, 2014 08:06am

Thank God everyone was okay. But, DAWN, don't take things to the extreme, your policy of not mentioning any private company, as they may get free promotion, is not called for here. Instead of always referring to a "private carrier", it is okay say Shaeen Airlines. You have a picture of the aircraft with the name, you give the flight designation of Shaeen "NL", but lets not name the airline in the story. It does not make sense, as that is part of the news story.

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Asad

Dec 31, 2014 09:28am

PIA = Prayers In Air my friend, prayers in air! Fly at your own risk.

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Hashim khan

Dec 31, 2014 09:33am

These private airlines are real low standard.

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A. Khan

Dec 31, 2014 09:37am

I find it strange that the "private airline" is not named in the article but the flight no. and picture clearly show that this aircraft belonged to Shaheen Air.

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farhan naseem

Dec 31, 2014 09:53am

It is very scary

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Talha

Dec 31, 2014 10:28am

At least some preliminary reasons for the mishap should have been mentioned in the article. Why did the plane skid?

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PTI Workers United

Dec 31, 2014 10:49am

@Hashim khan PIA is as bad

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farhan

Dec 31, 2014 10:50am

I think it is quite scary to fly in these local airlines

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Sami

Dec 31, 2014 11:05am

The evacuation of passengers was only through front door. Why not all the exit doors were opened for faster evacuation? Thanks God that there was no fire in the plane.

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Kamran

Dec 31, 2014 11:16am

Curious to know (and compare) airline related accidents / disasters (domestic and international) in the last couple of years. One gets to hear too many of these now than before. All in all, it's important to note that all passengers in this aircraft remained 'unhurt'. Quite frankly I'd prefer to get delayed at an airport than have the pilot/airline take an unnecessary risk of flying an aircraft when they themselves are not comfortable - better to be late in this world, than to be early in the next :)

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adnan

Dec 31, 2014 12:08pm

@Sami this was the most sensible and most relevant comment to the event.

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chacha

Dec 31, 2014 12:37pm

quite a few pilots are not competent and got promoted with 'safarish'. Thank God not one got hurt

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Merchant

Dec 31, 2014 12:39pm

@Abdul because we as a nation are still scared of backlash by telling the truth even though it is evident.

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Observer

Dec 31, 2014 12:41pm

When pilots are hired on "Sifarish" basis and not merit, this will continue to happen!

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shezzy

Dec 31, 2014 01:39pm

@Asad .. I have never had a bad experience with pia domestic or international flights.

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Syed Hussain Akbari

Dec 31, 2014 02:18pm

@PTI Workers United No Mr. PTI our National Airline is never as bad. It is as good as any other Airline or if you want to owe negative word then as bad as any International Airline of the world. I am a very frequent traveller around the globe. I can say that there are quite some airlines with big names who are nuisance either technically or service wise or even in the matter of punctuality. PIAnis far better among them. Only one point of different nature. Some time the passengers claim that the service of the crew is disgusting. It does appear so;but I find that the passengers are responsible for such attitude of the crew. The passengers are in general very misbehaving, they do not know the ethics of travelling and they show low level of their upbringing by misconducting with the cabin staff. Very often they use bad words and treat the staff members as if they were their slaves. They should never forget that mostly the staff members belong to good family background and are much better educated than the passengers. Air India as well faces the same problem and attitude of the passengers. BUT the Indians, because of their patriotic attitude do not blabber as the general passengers of PIA do.

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Muhammad Sadiq

Dec 31, 2014 02:32pm

@Imad Qureshi @jafar@abdul..Having read many of these kind of news articles on various Pakistani news websites, it seems like they copy and paste the news from other sources without bothering to change anything.

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FadyBoy

Dec 31, 2014 02:36pm

2014 is the bloodiest year for International Airline, ofcourse pakistan was missing its share from it.

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Hassan

Dec 31, 2014 03:02pm

I decided years ago that I would never set foot in another shaheen plane. On my flight to karachi the lights in the cabin were flickering the entire trip. Even before takeoff... How could they even allow a plane with an obvious electrical issue to take off??? Safety standards are far below acceptable levels.

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Muhammad Faizan Khan

Dec 31, 2014 03:26pm

Last thing we want..... Please be careful dear pilots.....

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Shahid

Dec 31, 2014 03:45pm

It is a every day business that one of the PIA vessels are in some trouble. As the things in PIA are working, most of the Pakistanies abroad have started to avoid boarding the national carier.

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ilyas

Dec 31, 2014 05:08pm

Please allow only new air crafts to all private air lines to maintain the high local aviation standard.

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Naseem

Dec 31, 2014 05:25pm

@FadyBoy what is the purpose of writing this comment?

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Mesh

Dec 31, 2014 06:38pm

@Syed Hussain Akbari Thank you Mr. Akbari for a much needed comment.

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Hassan

Dec 31, 2014 07:39pm

@Jaffar Dear, my thoughts are, If any media will name the "Shaheen Air Line" probably they will never get any "Advertisements-Deal" from that lovely or Poor Private Air line in future, So this is how private sector and private media is a Mafia and plays with the interests of general public. But still, I am glad to see the photo of the plane being shown up, and guess what air Line must be really angry on this.

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Jawad

Dec 31, 2014 08:49pm

CAA's mistake, mismanagement, the plane was skidded because the runway was not washed

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Pakistani

Dec 31, 2014 10:41pm

@Syed Hussain Akbari Dear Syed, This is one side of story but to be honest PIA is the one Airline whose flights are more late than any one else. In my opinion, Delay in flight is not due to passengers. Mostly when you delay a flight much then ultimately passengers become furious!

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hassan

Jan 01, 2015 10:55am

Reading so many comments in use of word private. I think the purpose was just to highlight that it is private airline instead of hiding the name. It may be unintended on part of author. If you listen to news, anchors have habit of calling something with different adjectives instead of repeating the name

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Gnanesh

Jan 01, 2015 01:11pm

@Syed Hussain Akbari Dear Syed, Was curious about the incident reported while browsing the site and was relieved that no one got injured. Too many incidents are happening around the world with flights; even while authorities and boards claim that there's increase in safety of airlines. With more and more budget private airlines, training standards and entry requirements seem to be lax. As you mentioned, Air India has also degenerated from being one of the best airlines in the world, even after Air India - Indian Airlines merger. There's a lot of public criticism and media scrutiny as well here on its performance. From being the top airline in the country, it has slid down to 3rd after Indigo and Jet. Though there might not have been a huge deterioration in service standards, it's pale when compared to the snazzy and smart kids on the block.There is a strong demand to privatise it to improve the operations and turn it profitable, even as it guzzles tax payers money by losing out to competition and stubbornly refuses to accept the demand. Which is only going to increase as few more airlines would take to the skies to cater to the increased demand, like Tata-Singapore Airlines "Vistara" which will take to skies soon.

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adil jadoon

Jan 02, 2015 04:03am

Why a delay of several hours. CAA incompetence. Check the runway and start using it again.

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Shaukat

Jan 02, 2015 04:29am

@Asad, it was not PIA this was Shaheen (prvt.)airline operating in Pakistan.

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Asim

Jan 02, 2015 08:51am

@Sami - i think it will cost them to put back the shoots that will come off from each door - so they saved money on opening only one

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white noise

Jan 02, 2015 09:11am

Pilot Training, Pilot Training, Pilot Training. Who do the check on the above? that's where you problem is...

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