PIA terminates five cabin crew members over smuggling attempt

The crew was detained in UK for questioning on suspicion of smuggling mobiles phones and currency in London on Monday

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Tuesday terminated five of its cabin crew members who were detained in the United Kingdom for trying to smuggle mobile phones and foreign currency.

While the UK Customs authorities had released PIA employees who returned to Islamabad on Tuesday morning, the management took the extreme step based on its own investigation.

"We will not spare anyone. They violated the rules and were carrying things which shouldn't be with them," said a PIA official.

Read: PIA's smuggling problem deepens as three crew members detained in UK

The crew had been detained in London on Monday morning for questioning on suspicion of smuggling mobiles phones and currency just before PIA flight PK-788 was due to take off for Karachi.

Authorities had initially stopped the 14-member crew, but detained only five airhostesses and stewards.