PIA captain, two others issued show-cause notices for overloading passengers

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has issued show-cause notices to a pilot and two others officials for loading seven extra passengers on a Karachi-Madina flight on January 20, in a violation of air safety regulations, sources said Monday.

PIA spokesman Danyal Gilani did not comment on the development, but said separately that: “Disciplinary action has been taken against all concerned officials.”

Capt Anwer Adil, senior purser (air hostess) Hina Turab, and terminal manager Akbar Ali Shah were issued notices for allegedly letting extra passengers travel on jump seats and the cockpit on PIA flight PK-743.

The development came after an inquiry committee set up by the airline found the allegations to be true.

“After in-depth investigation… it has been confirmed that passenger[s] travelled on [the] flight are over and above of the aircraft configuration (including jump seats) which is a clear violation of SOP [standard operating procedures] and violation of passenger safety,” read a report signed by Manager Operations Sohail Jaffar Ali.

As per SOPs in cases like these, the report said, the aircraft should be parked again to offload extra passengers “which was not done in this case”.

“Such type of violation/irregularity cannot be ignored in which safety of the passenger[s] is on [sic] stake.”

Sources said Capt Adil will not be able to operate flights after being issued the the notice. The Civil Aviation Authority is also investigating allegations of safety violation against the captain.

Talking to DawnNews, Capt Adil denied that he allowed extra passengers to travel on jump seats and demanded a transparent inquiry against “whoever allowed passengers on jump seats”.

As many as seven passengers aboard the PIA flight were forced to stand throughout the over three-hour flight after the airline boarded excess passengers, a Dawn report had said earlier this week.

The Boeing 777 aircraft (Reg No: AP BID) has a seating capacity of 409, including jump seats, while flight PK-743 carried 416 passengers from Karachi to Madina.

Sources said this constituted a serious air safety breach as in the case of an emergency, passengers without seats would not have access to oxygen and could also cause congestion in case of an evacuation.

PIA said Sunday it would investigate the allegations, but denied the extra passengers ‘stood in the aisles’ for the three-hour journey.

The airline’s spokesman said media reports that some passengers travelled standing were “exaggerated and baseless. It is not possible for anyone to travel like that in an aircraft, regardless of the duration of the flight.”

Source: Dawn