PIA flight facing challenges lands 'safely' at Karachi airport

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI:A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight that was facing challengesahead of landingat Karachi's Jinnah International Airport during itsflight from Islamabad has arrived "safely", Geo News reported, citing sources.

According to sources, the pilot of thePIA's flight PK-319 had informed the control tower approximately one hour ahead of the scheduled arrival that there was an indication the aeroplane's nose wheel was "not opening" — and was probably stuck. This, in turn, prompted the state of emergency at the Karachi airport.

However, the hatch to the front wheel opened subsequently, allowing the aeroplane to "land safely" at the Jinnah International Airport. Flight PK-319 is an Airbus A320 plane, which was carrying 173 people, including passengers and crew.

On the other hand, the runway,which was temporarily closed off for other flights, with flight PK-319 still there, was reopened 20 minutes later. The aeroplane was moved to the parking lot, whereafter all of the passengers and the crew disembarked safely, a spokesperson for the airline confirmed.

TheAirbus A320, which flies from Karachi to Islamabad and back, was moved to theparking area and grounded for arequired check-up.

The problem in the nose-wheel latch occurred despite a routine check-up of aeroplanes ahead of their flights, andAirbus A320 was given the green signal to fly.

Earlier, a state of emergency had been declared at the Karachi airport ahead of the scheduled arrival time of the PIA's flight PK-319, airline sources revealed.

Members of theemergency response team as well as rescue and fire officials had been alerted and were ready in position for any untoward incident that the flight could have possibly faced.

—Additional reporting by Tariq Abul Hasan