There are laws and standard operating procedures to deal with unruly passengers, who fight between themselves or with a crew causing physical harm or threatening other passengers and crew. PHOTO: FILE
In the post Ziaul Haq era, PIA has been reduced to an airline whose international flight passenger revenue relies almost solely comprises ethnic Pakistani traffic – the bulk coming from Pakistani expatriates in Europe, USA and Canada, while skilled and semi-skilled Pakistani labour working in the Gulf countries generate revenue from the Middle East.
On almost every flight bound to Manchester, Birmingham and London, fights erupt between few rowdy passengers. There are laws and standard operating procedures to deal with unruly passengers, who fight between themselves or with a crew causing physical harm or threatening other passengers and crew.
In this case with two seasoned PIA pilots – Captain Nadeem Sufi and Captain Rashid – on board, they should have informed PIA on the company channel or asked the air traffic control for police assistance on arrival, since the aircraft had already descended for approach to Manchester and would have landed within approximately 15 minutes.
If this procedure was followed the aircraft would have landed at Manchester airport, where police would have arrested the rowdy passengers on a written complaint signed by the captain.
Instead, a crisis was created and Pakistan and PIA ended up being negatively projected before international media in an already hostile environment. A mere onboard disturbance was wrongly perceived as a terrorist threat and Royal Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to escort the flight, creating panic. The unprofessionalism and immaturity of the PIA captain and his incapability to resolve the conflict has landed PIA into an ugly mess, which could have been avoided.
It is time for PIA to revaluate whether to raise the minimum academic qualification for the induction of pilots to minimum graduation, or an equivalent college degree, with strict psychiatric evaluation as performed by several international airlines.
Similarly, PIA needs to ensure that apart from flying capability, the pilot must be given training in basic human management skills and conflict resolution before being given command of a passenger aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 25th, 2013.
COMMENTS (11)
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Tariq Ali, if God Forbid, your family is on a flight and such event - "threat to blow up plane" - occurs, what would you prefer pilot to do?
a) land at a crowded airport with chance of blowing up b) follow protocol and procedure of international airspace and UK
easy to point fingers from a comfy chair. I look forward to your response.
Agree with the writer, Tariq Ali. I had the same feeling. There is a clear difference between just a brawl and an actual terrorist threat. Especially when the plane was about to land in minutes anyway. Also, where were our air marshals, the SSG guys supposedly onboard every flight?
I think Captain was the best judge of inside aircraft situation and acted according which proved wrong later but could have been otherwise.
Typical Pakistani media writing hate filled twaddle. You can't take chances in the air - Capt. Nadeem Sufi did the right thing.
The pilot did the right thing. I am sure a pilot of any other airline would have done the same thing.
Seems like the write knows nothing about air transport, decisions that the captain could take, decisions that control towers make, and in such uncertain situation what the security agency takes.
Captain can not land unless he has clearance. And is guided depending on situation.
Captain did the right thing in this situation, and the 2-bafoons who acted up, because they are Pakistani, becuase the are travelling in a Pakistani airline, and because knowing that they ca nget away with murder in such situations, acted up as per Pakistan standard.
These 2 should be thrown in jail.
Fully support the pilot on this one. His job is to fly a very complex machine and not to deal with the passengers' problems - that's what the other crew is for . What skills next for the pilot? Emergency medical skills? Cooking skills? Sweeping and clinical skills? Disagree with the author. Sorry.
Guess what? The captain is human. He probably panicked and thought it was a terrorist threat. Can happen.
Author, I can understand your frustration regarding the negative portrayal of your country regarding this incident, but your logic is not entirely correct. What you stated regarding a minor brawl is the fact, which came out only after the plane landed. But i entirely support what the pilot did. The people who got into argument actually threatened to "Blow up the plane" ( according to CNN news). When a passenger threatens to "blow up a plane mid air" (even though he just said that out of anger), what do you expect the pilot of that plane to do ? Go and search the passenger, whether he has a bomb or not ? The pilot did exactly what he was supposed to do. He raised a terror alert that a passenger is threatening to blow up the plane. And because the pilot raised a terror alert, fighter jets were scrambled.
I am sure one of the passengers made the threat that he would blow up the plane. That is why the PIA pilot decided to land the plane. Do you think it is worth risking 300 lives? If the plane actually exploded, that would tarnish Pakistan's image... this shows good judgement and anti-terrorist mindset of the Pakistani people. He is not an idiot, he has been flying for a long period of time and I am sure he knows the post 9/11 protocol, that in case any threat of terrorism occurs, the plane must be landed at the nearest airport immediately under the supervision of an Air Force plane.. Also, btw, just because Pakistanis are flying in a plane does not mean that people will constantly get into fights. I travel domestically between many Pakistani cities and I have NEVER seen two people fight on a plane.
had this been an actual threat and the pilot failed to act the same writer would have come forward and attacked the pilot over failure to respond. The pilot did what was necessary. Maybe an article should be written to teach pakistanis how to travel like humans.