Pilot returns from take-off point to off-load grieving passenger

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been in the news for all the wrong reasons for quite a while, but in an interesting turn of events, a PIA pilot took a ‘U-turn’ to drop off a grieving passenger, ARY News reported.

Flight PK-741 taking off from Islamabad International Airport for Jeddah was made to take an about turn from the take-off position after the news of a passenger’s mother passing away got to the cockpit.

The plane’s captain was informed that a passenger in the flight had just gotten the news of his mother’s passing and was sobbing hysterically for her.

Observing the delicate nature of the situation, the captain decided to bring the plane back from the take-off point.

The passenger was off-loaded, and the flight then resumed its regularly scheduled voyage towards Jeddah.

In the past, Pakistan International Airlines has off-loaded overweight flight attendants, a move which met with mixed responses from the general public.

A passenger in the past had had veteran politicians, Rehman Malik of PPP and Ramesh Kumar Vankwani (then PML-N and now PTI) off-loaded from a PIA flight after the flight was reportedly kept from taking off so the politicians could reach the plane at their ease.

The politicians were confronted by an angry passenger who was later joined by a few more people onboard to express their dismay over the flight delay.