PIA flight to Dubai ends up at Pak Air Force base

KARACHI—A commercial flight of Pakistan International Airlines landed yesterday at the Faisal Base of the Pakistan Air Force. Sources said the Karachi-bound flight PK-214, carrying 142 passengers from Dubai, landed at the military airport due to the pilot’s error and negligence on the part of the Air Traffic Controller of the tower at Jinnah Terminal. Civil Aviation Authority said it had launched an inquiry into the incident. A separate inquiry is also being conducted by the PAF.
The CAA said it had recorded the statement of pilot Erol Kastar, a Turkish, whose blood samples were also taken for dope test. The PIA, which acquired the plane from a Turkish company on a wet lease early this month, has grounded the pilot. As per international aviation rules, a pilot is not allowed to fly if he or she has more than 20 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood in the system. The rules ban pilots from having alcohol in the eight hours before reporting for duty.
The sources said the plane, which had Turkish Airline monograms, landed at the Faisal Base around 12.53pm. “It was immediately surrounded by the security officials, who later allowed it to take off around 1.21pm and it landed at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport around 1.33pm,” they added.
The sources said that Air Traffic Controller at the tower gave the pilot clearance for landing even without seeing the aircraft, which had the symbol of the Turkish company on it. They said the Turkish pilot was not well-versed with the layout of Karachi airport’s runway either. “The pilot confused the runway of the Karachi airport with that of PAF base due to the recent change in the direction of landing and taking off,” they added.—Agencies