Mistake at PIA plane leads to offloading of 50 passengers at Beijing airport

KARACHI: In what can be called as the second blunder in less than a month, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had to offload 50 passengers at the Beijing airport, when the emergency chute of its Boeing 777 was mistakenly activated.

The recent incident took place when the PIA flight (PK-853) for Tokyo-Beijing-Islamabad sector was parked at an airport in China, and “at the time of loading of in-flight meals the emergency slide got activated”, said a spokesman for the PIA on Friday.

“This incident caused a delay of nearly three hours in departure,” he said, adding that, considering the safety measures the PIA had to offload nearly 50 passengers joining from Beijing.

He assured that the passengers will be adjusted on the next available flight to Pakistan.

PIA’s top management took strict and immediate notice of the incident and airline’s chief executive Air Marshal Arshad Malik ordered an inquiry while also suspending the cabin crew responsible for the incident.

Earlier in June, an Islamabad bound flight of PIA, with 393 passengers from Manchester, was delayed for over seven hours as a female passenger pulled the lever of the aircraft’s back door while taxiing of the plane. 

As a result, the aircraft’s emergency slide immediately came out, due to which 37 passengers had to be offloaded by the PIA crew.