Snap-checking: PIA flights combed in UK for unknown reason

Officials checked documents and belongings of hundreds of passengers one-by-one on flights from Karachi and Islamabad

KARACHI:

Passengers and crew of two PIA flights, which landed in London on Monday, were not allowed to disembark for around an hour by UK customs and immigration officials who searched for something they did not specify.

The officials checked the documents and belongings of hundreds of passengers one-by-one on the flights from Karachi and Islamabad, causing one of the return flights to miss its scheduled departure time.

A PIA spokesperson said that snap-checking was a routine exercise carried out by UK customs authorities on many international airlines.

“They do this every month or two on a host of flights of various airlines. The last time it was carried out, the flight was delayed by more than an hour,” said Rana Muhammad Hanif, a PIA spokesman.

“It’s primarily done to check (illegal flow of) currency.” However, he insisted that there was no delay in return flights.

The spokesperson of the Aviation Division Sher Ali also insisted that the check was random and a “matter of routine.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2015.