Flight PK-758 was not able to depart because of technical problems. PHOTO: FILE.
Flight PK-758 was not able to depart on time because of technical problems, leaving passengers stuck at London Heathrow Airport.
The 400 passengers on board were stranded at the airport since December 24.
Some of the passengers were given hotel accommodation by the PIA administration.
Express News footage had showed the desperate passengers asking for PIA to make the necessary arrangements for them.
Geo News, The News International and Daily JANG correspondent Murtaza Ali Shah tweeted about the situation at the London airport:
Chaos at Heathrow Airport,400 PIA passengers stuck for 25 hrs now. Sick,elderly,disabled n children amongst the victims of PIA inefficiency
— Murtaza Ali Shah (@MurtazaViews) December 25, 2013
Syed Faisal Karim, an anchor at Geo News tweeted that a groom missed his Mehndi in Lahore because of the delay:
aae haae
— syed faisal karim (@faisalkarimlive) December 25, 2013
a groom misses his mehndi in #Lahore as PIA flight in #london is delayed for 24 more hours!
Ailing airline
PIA saw a 12.5% decline in revenue and a 42% rise in losses in nine months ended September 2013.
In September, the federal government had decided to initiate privatisation of the airlines by putting up 26% of the national flag carrier’s shares for sale.
According to officials of the PM office, state-run entities, such as PIA, Pakistan Steel Mills and Pakistan Railways, have placed a massive burden on the country’s economy. These unprofitable corporations are inflicting losses of up to Rs500 billion per annum on the national exchequer.
COMMENTS (25)
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@Sid: Perhaps you should read my statement again. I am not denying that the delay was anything less than atrocious. Personally, i would be outraged myself if i were in that situation too. I am merely addressing the derogatory statements made by both the media and individuals who do not understand the complexities of operating an airline. In PIA's case, the situation is worse. There have been times when half of PIA's fleet had been grounded due to unavailability of necessary spare components. AP-BGK has had another technical delay while operating a flight from Paris - Milan - Islamabad. The aircraft in question, it appears, it plagued with technical issues and so are various aircraft in the fleet. My source being my own family who has served in the national airline as cockpit crew for decades. More often than not even the cockpit crew is given misleading information regarding the exact time as to when the aircraft would be fixed. Also you need to keep in mind crew duty hours. Perhaps the existing cockpit crew had burst the maximum time allowable by law to operate an aircraft prompting the management to look for replacements. I am in no way downplaying the role of the organization as stated earlier. I'm trying to bring things into perspective. Once again, please visit avherald.com. See for yourself the problems that airlines face. PIA is not alone in this mess.
I was on that flight pia took the mick no communication for 2 days never going to fly with them disgrace
@Ali: I find it hard to believe that people have to wait for engineers to arrive from abroad because local engineers are on holiday. You could believe that kind of story in Pakistan, but I refuse to believe that would happen in London at Heathrow Airport. I have family who were on that plane so let me clarify to you what exactly happened.
The flight was scheduled to take off at 8pm on the 24th Dec 2013. Upon reaching the runway as the planes engines were fired up, the pilot turns them off and tells passengers that due to a technical fault, the plane has to return back to the gate. From around 8.301 until midnight passengers were stuck inside the plane and at one point there was no electricity and people were complaining of extreme humidity in the Plane. During this time there was no further updates from the pilots.
After midnight passengers are taken off the plane and put in a holding area awaiting to be transported to a nearby hotel (based in Feltham - not exactly a walking distance away from the airport). One coach, able to carry 50 people is used to ferry people to the hotel.
Passengers spend 2 nights in the hotel with no accurate information as to when the plane will be fixed. Peoples luggage on-board the aircraft was not taken off so people were unable to make any other plans and had to spend 2 days without changing their clothes.
During this time PIA customer service was giving conflicting information as to the status of the aircraft. They had little idea as to what was happening on the ground.
Every airline has problems, but most airlines are able to handle such problems in a reasonable manner, however PIA's management of the situation was disgraceful - The chairman should resign!
Whilst I can agree with some of the comments above that the technical problems faced by PIA are also faced by any other airline in the world. Having travelled on United and other American Airlines, I have seen their planes being delayed by technical faults. But I boycotted PIA due to bad customer service and its staff treating customers like cattle.
The motto of PIA- 'Fly with us at your own risk in our ageing aircrafts, flown by tipsy pilots'
Shahid Khaqan Abbassi written all over this episode. Government is buying more planes and at the same time damage more already bad reputation of PIA to make a political case of its privatization at rock bottom prices. Nawaz's cronies will make trillions out of his last stint in power.
Why do people (especially Media) criticize PIA so much? Flight delays, technical faults etc happen to every airlines. Similar is the story of American Airlines, Air India and other popular airlines..
Those who travel by PIA flights should consider themselves extremely lucky as they must be remembering God/Allah throughout the duration of flight and thank the Almighty after it lands safely at their respective destinations.
I fly on pia regularly and i have also been on airblue and emirates but i have always liked PIA as it offers a direct flight where you don,t have to wait for anymore for transit flights or anything else. For flying from london or birmingham to pakistan, No doubt PIA is best. although their service is not that good but still i like it and yes, for the last 3 years i have been watching the same songs n movies. they never update anything but still i like them
All these people especially the groom will never gonna fly from PIA in future...
I think PIA is doing this all intentionally
The Best Part is that "It Reached" ..
Just came on a PIA flight from London, aircraft was a mess, dirty and very old. Things were falling apart. PIA must be privatised so they can invest on better fleet.
From London To Lahoreeee
All signs point to the fact that PIA must be privatised............and the government still drags its feet........disgraceful.
Lesson: never to risk flying on PIA! What was the groom even thinking?! You almost half expect something to go wrong with a PIA flight! (on a lighter note)