PIA’s flight to Canada lands back in Karachi after four hours
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Islamabad to Toronto was diverted back to Karachi on Friday after a technical fault was noticed by the captain only four hours into the journey.
The Boeing 777 with 268 passengers onboard was scheduled to take off from Islamabad International Airport at 2:15 pm on Friday, but departed an hour late. When flying over Russia the pilot noticed a technical issue and decided to head back.
PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan said that PIA flight PK-781 was diverted back to Karachi after it developed a technical fault, reported Dawn.
He said that after the issue was detected, the plane landed in Karachi around 1 am on Saturday.
The spokesperson claimed that the technical problem with the aircraft was minor, but the captain preferred to return back, rather than to continue the long flight over the Atlantic.
The decision to bring the aircraft back to Karachi was made due to better arrangements at the engineering base and availability of spare parts, he said.
Arrangements to receive the flight at Karachi Airport were said to be in place and the passengers were accommodated at the airport hotel.
The flight is now scheduled to depart for Toronto at 1pm today (Saturday).
The aircraft, bearing registration number AP-BGZ, had previously reported the same fault, according to Dawn.