ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: The presence of mosquitoes aboard a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight on Saturday frightened the living daylights out of the passengers already wary of the winged terror responsible for the deadly dengue fever outbreak across the country.

Moments after the Islamabad-bound PK-037 took off from Quaid-i-Azam International Airport in Karachi at 7:15pm, the passengers noticed that the plane was infested with mosquitoes. A complaint was promptly lodged with the flight attendants.

A foreign delegation coming to Islamabad to attend a population welfare conference also joined in with the other passengers in voicing their concern, a passenger told Dawn from Islamabad airport.

Responding to the complaints, the captain ordered ‘mosquito- killer’ spray, but the exercise proved futile as lesser quantity was used to avoid further inconvenience to the already edgy passengers, and the complaints continued to pour in. Finally, the captain threw in the towel accepting defeat at the hands of ever resilient mosquitoes and apologised the passengers for not being much of a help.