‘Drunk passenger’ forces Thailand-bound flight to land at Karachi airport

Unruly man boarded Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul and started misbehaving with cabin crew and passengers

A Turkish Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Karachi airport after a drunken passenger created a ruckus on the plane, Express News reported on Saturday.

The unruly man boarded the Thailand-bound flight TK-172 from Istanbul started misbehaving with the cabin crew and passengers after which the flight captain sought permission from control tower of Karachi Airport for landing at the Jinnah International Airport.

Subsequently, the drunken passenger was offloaded at the Karachi airport where he was handed over to Airport Security Force (ASF) and transferred to the transit area.

The airport authorities said it was not an emergency landing and the passenger will be deported back to Türkiye on the next flight.

Also read: Man kicks window, acts strangely on Dubai-bound PIA flight

In the similar incident earlier in September, a passenger aboard Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight 283 caused a ruckus, trying to kick one of the windows in the aircraft as it was enroute to Dubai from Peshawar.

Airline staff tried their best to suppress the manic episode. The boisterous passenger named Osama Abdullah started to act strangely after take-off. In videos that were shared online, an aircraft staff member can be seen helping Osama up as he lay on his stomach in the plane's aisle.

After successfully coaxing the passenger back to his seat, the staff member turned the camera to face the troubled passenger. "He was fine before take-off, but after take-off he started acting strangely. He has been disturbing other passengers; sometimes he calls out the Azaan (call to prayer), sometimes he lies down on the aisle and he has taken out all of his possessions," said one of the flight crew.