PIA rubbishes reports of technical fault in international flight

Spokesperson says flight was fully airworthy at take-off, its tail suffered minor damage before landing in Milan

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) rubbished on Sunday reports regarding an international flight of the national flag carrier having a technical fault before it took off from Lahore.

PIA spokesperson Danyal Gilani, in a statement, clarified that the reports regarding the PIA’s flight PK-719 (Lahore-Milan-Paris) were totally baseless and misleading.



“The aircraft was fully airworthy at the time of take-off from Lahore,” the spokesperson said. “Probably a bird on some other foreign object hit the tail of the aircraft, slightly damaging it, shortly before it landed in Milan.”

Gilani upheld that the damage to the aircraft’s tail was detected during a routine inspection carried out before each flight. “The passengers who had to travel onward to Paris were sent through another airline,” he said.

Regarding the status of the aircraft, the airlines said it was being repaired and would soon be made operational.