ISLAMABAD, July 10: Over 200 passengers who boarded a London-bound flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) at Islamabad airport on Saturday were kept confined in the aircraft for four hours for “technical reasons”, a passenger said.
Chaudhry Shaban, adviser to a former Azad Kashmir prime minister, phoned Dawn from the plane to complain that the cabin crew refused to serve even the hungry and thirsty children during the long wait, saying that they would attend to their needs once the aircraft was in the air.
Every now and then the crew would announce that the plane would be taking off “after 10 minutes” but the minutes stretched to four hours, he said.
“If the plane had developed any technical problem, the passengers should have been shifted to the lounge rather than being made to suffer inside the suffocating plane.”
When contacted, PIA spokesperson Samina Pervez told Dawn that PK-785 flight was delayed by only one hour and 45 minutes due to a technical fault detected just before the new take-off time.
Some sources, however, claimed that the London-bound flight was delayed because of a security alert at Heathrow Airport where it was to land.
The sources at Islamabad airport said PK-785 was scheduled to depart at 10:45am but eventually took off at 2:45pm and the passengers remained confined in the plane for that period.
Ms Pervez agreed that the take-off time of the flight was 10:45am but said the passengers were informed before boarding the plane that maintenance and refuelling procedures would delay the departure by two hours.
However, the last-minute detection of a fault caused another one hour 45 minutes delay, she said.
Mohammad Asghar adds from Pindi: Six tyres of a Boeing-747 aircraft of the Pakistan International Airlines deflated while taxiing at Islamabad International Airport on Saturday, the authorities said.
PIA spokesman at Islamabad Headquarters Mohammad Latif told Dawn that none of the passengers were hurt during the incident.
When asked about the causes, he said: “Apparently, no specific reason has come to light so far. Sometimes it does happen.”
The Boeing aircraft (flight PK-300) which flew from Karachi landed at Islamabad airport at about 9am, and was parked at bay No-10. After the passengers and crew had disembarked the plane, six of its tyres deflated while taxiing.
However, no damage was sustained by the aircraft. Later in the evening, after its tyres were replaced, the aircraft (flight PK-785) took off for London.
PIA FLIGHT DELAYED: Meanwhile, PIA flight PK-309 was delayed after one of its engines developed fault before departure for Karachi at the Islamabad airport on Saturday.
PIA Spokesman Muhammad Latif said the fault was removed by engineers after some time.