Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the national flag carrier, recently experienced a significant disruption in its flight operations. Flight PK 288, scheduled to fly from Doha to Islamabad, encountered a technical glitch that forced it to return to Doha, just 50 minutes into the journey. The flight, which was already delayed by an hour and 20 minutes from its scheduled departure time, faced a technical issue 15 minutes post-takeoff. Following the air traffic controller’s instructions, the pilot maneuvered the aircraft to make several rounds over the sea before safely landing back at Doha airport. During this ordeal, passengers remained onboard the aircraft. PIA’s engineering team promptly addressed the technical fault, and after a delay of two hours, the flight resumed its journey to Islamabad. Despite the initial hiccup, the flight managed to reach its destination later that night. This incident is not an isolated one. In the past week, two PIA aircraft have experienced technical faults while in Saudi Arabia. Notably, one of these is a Boeing 777 aircraft that has been grounded at Muscat airport for several days due to technical issues.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)