PIA airhostess 'caught shoplifting' in France

Spokesperson says the staffer has been taken off international flights till an inquiry into the incident

The French police on Tuesday took a Pakistan International Airline (PIA) stewardess into custody after she was allegedly caught shoplifting.

The stewardess was taken to a police station for some time before being released, PIA spokesperson Danyal Gilani said.

The staffer will be returning to Pakistan today and the management has decided to take her off international flights till an inquiry into the incident is completed, the spokesperson added.

On January 2, another PIA stewardess was charged with shoplifting in Toronto. Maria Akhund landed in Toronto from Lahore via PIA flight PK797. Akhund was allegedly caught stealing in CCTV footage of the department store.



The department store management handed over the footage to police who interrogated the stewardess and the flight captain.

A month later, the national flag carrier suspended a pilot after reports emerged that he operated an overloaded flight from Karachi to Madina, with passengers forced to stand in the aisle for the whole flight.

Passengers with handwritten boarding cards scrambled for seats as the Boeing 777 taxied for takeoff on January 20. Although the plane had a seating alignment for 409 passengers, there were 416 on board the flight, PK-743, to Madina.



Similarly, in August last year, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) claimed to have arrested a senior PIA stewardess at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport in connection with an attempt to smuggle gold to the United States (US).

A case was registered against Nuzhat Bukhari after two kilogrammes of gold were recovered from her luggage during a routine search at the airport.

The suspect reportedly confessed that she was trying to smuggle gold from Lahore to New York via PIA flight PK-721. The woman was later handed over to Customs officials for further investigation.