PESHAWAR: The passengers at Peshawar airport were left helpless when a Karachi-bound PIA flight left an hour earlier than the scheduled time Monday, Geo News reported.
According to Station Manager Ahsanullah, the PIA flight from Peshawar left for Karachi an hour before the announced time after receiving instructions from Islamabad.
Several passengers could not catch the flight that left without any prior announcement of early departure.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) stated that inspection of private airlines' planes will begin from today while operation of these airlines would continue. However, the CAA had not yet received orders in connection with the grounding of planes of private airlines, officials added.
On the other hand, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar on Sunday ordered to ground all the planes of private airlines, making the obtainment of fitness certificates mandatory for them within the next three to four days.
Over 100 passengers and crew members of a Shaheen Airline flight lost all hope when two of the tyres of the plane burst during landing at the Jinnah International Terminal on Sunday, causing the aircraft to tilt towards one side.
In another incident, a flight of the same airline, Shaheen Air, carrying 120 passengers from Lahore to Mashhad was stopped at the last moment when oil was found leaking from its tanks.
The incidents took place two days after a Bhoja Air plane crashed while trying to make a landing at the Islamabad airport, killing all the 127 passengers on board. None of the people on board the Shaheen Airline were hurt but the incident caused the closure of the airport runway for around seven hours, triggering protest by the passengers whose flights could not depart on schedule due to the incident.