Pakistan's national airlines is being probed for a major security breach last month when seven extra passengers were taken on board the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-743 (Karachi-Madina). The seven passengers stood in the aisle of the three-hour flight.
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PIA spokesperson Danyal Gilani said the matter was being investigated and anyone found guilty would be penalised. The PIA would take stern action against them under company rules, he said. No action has been taken yet.
On January 20, the Boeing 777 aircraft with seating capacity of 409, including jump seats, carried 416 passengers on flight PK-743 from Karachi to Madina.
The boarding passes given to the extra passengers were not computer generated. They were hand-written, sources told Dawn. The computer-generated list didn't mention the extra passengers in the list.
Capt Anwer Adil, who operated that flight, said: "After takeoff when I came out of cockpit, Ms Turab informed me that there were some extra people who [had been] boarded by the traffic staff. I also noticed some people were those who were categorically refused jump seats by me at the check in counter before the flight. I had already taken off and the senior purse did not inform me about extra passengers before closing the aircraft door. Therefore after takeoff immediate landing back at Karachi was not possible as it required lot of fuel dumping which was not in the interest of the airline."
Hina Turab, the senior purser (air hostess), reportedly shifted blame on to the pilot saying that she had informed him about chaos in the cabin. The pilot reportedly told her to 'adjust' the passengers since the aircraft was on the taxi way.
Taking on extra passengers is a serious air safety breach as the excess passengers can lead to faults in the operation of the flight, they can cause congestion during emergency evacuation and the excess passengers would not have access to oxygen during emergency.
According to protocol, the flight should have gone back to the airport to deboard the excess passengers. However, the pilot carried on with the flight.
Adil said that it was the senior air hostess' responsibility to ensure that excess passengers were not taken on.
"Our CEO ordered the investigation into this incident soon after details emerged, which was much earlier than it was reported in the media," Danyal Gilani, PIA's spokesman, told Al Jazeera.
