PIA spokesperson says 14 crew members were released after being detained for nearly 2 hours. PHOTO: EXPRESS / FILE
Passports of the crew members of the flight were also confiscated.
The National Crime Agency of Britain was investigating the matter relating to the recovery of narcotics from Islamabad to London flight PK-785 by the border security personnel, BBC Urdu reported.
No arrest had been made in the case while further investigation was underway, the report added.
Earlier, PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar confirmed the flight, which arrived at 2:50pm in London, was thoroughly searched for over two hours after landing.
Fighter jets escort PIA plane to UK airport over ‘security threat’
Upon landing, as passengers disembarked, the flight crew and aircraft were searched by authorities, the spokesperson said and added that 14 crew members were released after being detained for nearly two hours.
Tajwar claimed that nothing was found on the plane during investigation, saying they plan to take up the case with the authorities concerned.
Interestingly, narcotics was recovered from the same Boeing-777 plane earlier also during a repair work.
In February, a Heathrow-bound PIA aircraft was intercepted and escorted by fighter jets to Stansted Airport in northeast London because of a “vague security threat”. Later, a suspect was arrested and charged with fraud and misrepresentation by Met Police.
Khalid Baqa, the 52-year-old suspect was previously jailed for two years in 2012, after being charged with three counts of possession of terrorist material and one count of dissemination of terrorist material.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ