It had been claimed that Safdar, supported by Subhani, made threats to blow up the plane and kill its crew and passengers after an argument broke out . PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
Mohammed Safdar, 42, and his friend Tayyab Subhani, 30, were arrested in May after their flight from the Pakistani city of Lahore to Manchester in northwest England had to make an emergency diversion to London's Stansted Airport.
Britain scrambled Typhoon fighter jets to intercept the flight.
It had been claimed that Safdar, supported by Subhani, made threats to blow up the plane and kill its crew and passengers after an argument broke out with air stewards 30,000 feet (9,100 metres) above ground.
But the judge instructed the jury to find the pair not guilty after concluding that the case against them was "tenuous and peppered with inconsistencies".
"Under the circumstances no jury can properly convict these men," judge Charles Gratwicke told Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex, just outside London.
A series of witnesses had told the court that although the men acted like "idiots", they had not made serious threats to blow up the plane.
Captain Nadeem Sufi originally alerted authorities to the scare, but told the court that once the severity of the diversion operation became clear he had tried to reverse the decision by telling air traffic control that the men were "laughing and joking".
Safdar and Subhani, who are from Lancashire in northwest England, had been returning from Safdar's mother's funeral in Pakistan.
Prosecutors had stressed that the pair were not extremists or "terrorists," but that the crew was forced to take the threats seriously.
Once on the ground, the plane was surrounded by armed police under a full-scale bomb alert.
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@SadPaki @vickram
In the judgement, the prosecution was not able to prove that a threat was in fact made. Had the prosecution (and PIA staff) been able to prove that a threat was made, then per UK law, both men would have faced jail time, there is no leniency on that account since making threats in an aeroplane is a very serious crime in UK. This is from a UK newspaper:
But a series of witnesses told the court said that although the men had acted like idiots, they had not heard a bomb threat.
So there was no proof that the men did make a threat.
PIA fly with idiots...
Pakistan is full of such men.
The entire cost of flight diversion should be recovered from these idiots. PIA is already running in huge losses and such idiots shouldn't be allowed to cause further bleeding!
scrambling eurofighter typhoon and full police force for these idiot's . Wow
It's pretty fair to be honest. They WERE idiots. Laughing all the way to the kebab shop now after wasting the money of taxpayers and making a fool out of us Pakistanis. Try this ish in a less lenient country for example in the Middle East. Na rahay ga baans na bajay gee bansari - if you know what I mean.
In the US uneducated uncultured whites are called white trash. Mirpuris are the brown trash of Pakistan.
UK should charge PIA all the expenses incurred from the moment the flight crew alerted the UK authorities to the dismissal of the case. Why sjould UK tax payer pay for PIA crews misjudgement.
Please not again. PIA is a cursed airline. When will these stories end. A drunk pilot and fighting by passengers. Now this. These jokers should have been sent to jail for ten years.