KARACHI, Nov 9: Pakistan International Airlines, already facing financial crunch because of slowdown in cargo business and air travel since the Sept 11 attacks on the US landmarks, lost millions of rupees on Friday when 15 tons of cargo was offloaded from a flight because of security reasons.

Insiders in PIA said that Karachi-Manchester-New York flight PK 715, which was to be a VVIP flight from Manchester to New York as President Gen Musharraf was to board it at Manchester, left Karachi without the commercial cargo, depriving the international carrier of millions of rupees.

The reason for this, the sources said, was that the army team which had carried out the thorough search of the cargo, expressed dissatisfaction over the exercize and the plane had to leave without the cargo.

When PIA’s general manager cargo, Wasim Bari, was contacted, he said: “I am not aware of the correct situation.”

However, he added, the cargo would be sent through the next London flight.