KARACHI, Jan 8: Twenty passengers and four crew members of a Quetta-bound PIA flight were stranded at Kandahar Airport on Tuesday for a couple of hours when the airspace had to be closed because of rocket firing in the vicinity of the airport.

A PIA spokesman said all the passengers and crew of flight PK 199 were safe and flew from the southern Afghan town at around 1.20pm, when the airspace was opened. The plane landed at Quetta at 2.15pm. He said the flight was scheduled to depart at 11.20am (PST) but was stopped due to closure of the airport as a precautionary measure because of rocket fire outside the premises.