PIA PK-306
KARACHI:
My brother's family was among the unfortunate victims of what transpired recently on board PK-306.
This was a flight scheduled to go to Lahore from Karachi. It was delayed by over six hours in Karachi after the pilot suddenly announced that instead of flying to Lahore the plane would first go to Faisalabad. Shouldn’t those on the plane have been told in advance that there was going to be a re-routing of the flight? This should have happened well before check-in and not when the passengers were inside the plane. The behaviour of the airline, CAA and ASF officials was disappointing.
A flight’s destination can only be changed after the doors of the plane are closed if there are certain unavoidable circumstances beyond the control of the airline. The CAA, a regulatory body, with a mandate to ensure that all airlines provide a safe and efficient mode of air travel, failed in its responsibility by allowing both the ASF and the airline to treat the passengers in such a heavy-handed manner — especially since the re-routing was done at the airline’s behest. Doesn’t anyone see the inherent injustice in the way this flight’s passengers were treated, regardless of the fact that most of them may have agreed to take the flight eventually? Jameel Akhtar Islamabad
Published in the Express Tribune, May 19th, 2010.
My brother's family was among the unfortunate victims of what transpired recently on board PK-306.
This was a flight scheduled to go to Lahore from Karachi. It was delayed by over six hours in Karachi after the pilot suddenly announced that instead of flying to Lahore the plane would first go to Faisalabad. Shouldn’t those on the plane have been told in advance that there was going to be a re-routing of the flight? This should have happened well before check-in and not when the passengers were inside the plane. The behaviour of the airline, CAA and ASF officials was disappointing.
A flight’s destination can only be changed after the doors of the plane are closed if there are certain unavoidable circumstances beyond the control of the airline. The CAA, a regulatory body, with a mandate to ensure that all airlines provide a safe and efficient mode of air travel, failed in its responsibility by allowing both the ASF and the airline to treat the passengers in such a heavy-handed manner — especially since the re-routing was done at the airline’s behest. Doesn’t anyone see the inherent injustice in the way this flight’s passengers were treated, regardless of the fact that most of them may have agreed to take the flight eventually? Jameel Akhtar Islamabad
Published in the Express Tribune, May 19th, 2010.