Crew of a Pakistan International Airlines flight to London searched and detained at Heathrow
No reason was given for the search, a spokesperson of the country’s national carrier said.
The crew members of a Pakistan International Airlines flight were searched and detained by British security officials at Heathrow Airport on Monday, Dawn reported. Airline spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar, however, said no reason was given for the detention.
Flight 785 arrived in London from Islamabad at 2.50 pm on Monday. After the passengers disembarked, the crew was “thoroughly searched”, Tajwar said. Fourteen members of the crew were detained for nearly two hours. The aircraft, too, was thoroughly searched but nothing suspicious was found, Tajwar added. The flight returned to Lahore on Tuesday with a different set of crew members.
Pakistan’s national carrier has faced a lot of flak lately for poor service and the unprofessional behaviour of its staff. Earlier this month, a senior PIA pilot was taken off duty for allegedly sleeping in a business class seat and handing over the plane’s controls to his first officer and a trainee while on a flight from Islamabad to London. One of the plane’s 305 passengers reported the incident to the airline, with a photo of the napping pilot to boot.