Flight attendant prevents PIA from facing huge financial loss

KARACHI: Present-mindedness of a flight attendant has saved the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from facing a huge financial loss worth millions by stopping the release of aircraft’s emergency sliding at Lahore airport, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The Dubai-Lahore flight PK-204 escaped the release of its emergency sliding following an on-time decision of the flight attendant approached the aircraft’s door for crosschecking.

According to the report, the pilot did not make an announcement for disarming of the plane’s door and messaged for all door is okay to the crew members. After receiving the instruction from the pilot, the flight attendant attempted to undock Gate No L-1 which raised warning alarms of the plane.

Taking an immediate decision, the attendant closed the door again before the release of the sliding for emergency evacuation. Later, the passengers were taken out of the plane from second exit.

The national flag-carrier could face a financial loss of millions if the emergency slide of the Airbus A-320 released. Sources said that Captain Ahsan Zaidi was operating the PIA’s flight number PK-204 which landed at the Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airline.

Read: PIA offloads 37 passengers as woman mistakenly opens aircraft’s door

The administration of the national flag-carrier took notice and commenced an investigation of the incident.

Earlier in June, 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 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.

“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.

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.