KARACHI: While a Europe-bound Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft was found to be faulty in Lahore at the last minute on Tuesday, the flight was cancelled, the passengers were shifted to hotel and the airplane ferried to Karachi for repairs.

According to sources, three dents were found on PIA’s Boeing B-777 (AP-BHV) aircraft’s engine shell while up to two dents were allowed.

Because there was one dent more than the allowed number, it was decided that it be fixed, lest the aircraft be grounded in Europe.

The national flag carrier is being observed closely in Europe and it could be only a few steps away from getting banned.

The sources said the aircraft was scheduled to be ferried without passengers to Karachi where another similar aircraft (B-777) was under repairs and the engine shell of that aircraft would be taken out and fixed on the faulty aircraft after which it would be sent back to Lahore from where it was scheduled to fly to Europe.

The passengers in the meantime have been shifted to a hotel.

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said during a random checking the CAA staffers found faults with the PIA flight that was about to go to London.

The CAA told the PIA to first get the faults removed only then the aircraft would be allowed to take passengers.

He said the aircraft would be sent to Karachi without passengers and after it was fixed then it would be allowed to fly to Europe.

PIA spokesperson Sultan Hassan said the airlines quality assurance and safety department on its routine check found some faults with the aircraft.

He said the CAA staffers had not caught the aircraft. Some work was done on it in Lahore after which the aircraft would be sent to Karachi for rest of the work and then it would be sent to Lahore for its journey to London on Wednesday morning.

He said that over 380 passengers of Lahore–London flight PK 757 were still in the lounge when the fault was detected.

When it became clear that the fault could not be removed and the aircraft would be sent to Karachi.The aircraft was scheduled to arrive in Karachi in the night after which the repairs would be done and it would return to Lahore during the night and would go on its journey to London in the morning.

CAA CHECKING: The checking of the first aircraft of Bhoja Air was completed by the CAA’s air worthiness department in Karachi and it was found to be satisfactory and was returned to the company on Tuesday.

He said that now an aircraft of Shaheen Air was called in and was undergoing checks and after it was cleared it would be returned to the airlines.