RAWALPINDI: A scuffle erupted between a passenger and airline staff at the Islamabad International Airport Saturday night after the passenger was stopped from carrying overweight hand luggage on board a plane to Karachi.

Sources said the Airport Security Force (ASF) had to intervene in the brawl, and the passenger was examined by a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) doctor who suggested he was mentally ill.

The passenger was travelling with his father on a private airline to Karachi. When both passengers entered the domestic departure’s lounge and reported to the airline’s briefing counter, staff pointed out that one of the passengers’ hand luggage weighed 15kg, and the other’s weighed 10kg.

Airline staff told the passenger his hand luggage was quite overweight and he would not be allowed to carry it on board. They asked him to instead check it into the hold, but the passenger refused to give up the luggage and insisted he carry it with him.

The passenger began shouting at airline staff when they refused to let him carry his baggage onto the plane, which in turn panicked airport authorities and other passengers.

The passenger’s father told airline staff his son was mentally ill.

A doctor called in by CAA staff later examined the passenger and also suggested he was mentally ill.

The airline offloaded the father and son, and they left the passenger lounge.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2019