LAHORE – A PIA extra section flight, operating on Sialkot-Jeddah route, had to make a technical landing at the Karachi airport after burning 23 tonnes of fuel in the air, causing a loss of Rs 3 million to the national flag carrier, sources in the PIA said on Saturday.
The Umrah flight PK-745 was diverted to Karachi from Sialkot for safety reasons and to troubleshoot any possible engineering faults, as it could not land at the Sialkot airport because it was carrying a large amount of fuel.
The aircraft Boeing 747-300 took off from the Sialkot airport at 4:55 pm and made a technical landing at the Jinnah International Airport at 7:00 pm, with 468 passengers and 22 crew members on board.
According to the sources, the reason behind the technical landing was that the cockpit crew and ground engineers failed to remove the plane’s landing gear pins due to which the pilot could not lift the gears while it (plane) was in the air.
A PIA spokesperson said the flight proceeded to Jeddah after hours of repair work at the Karachi airport.
A ground engineer of the Lahore airport on the condition of anonymity said that as per the SOP (standard operating procedure), an aircraft’s landing gear pins had to be inserted before its take off to prevent any problem in the landing gear.
“Before a plane departs, the landing gear pins are removed and shown to the cockpit crew for confirmation as per the procedure,” he said while adding that the flight PK-745 lifted off, but the landing gear pins were not removed.
The plane had to burn 23 tonnes of fuel to ensure maximum landing weight at which it had to land.
An engineer said that at a time when landing gears could not be lifted, an aircraft burnt more fuel, could not gain specific height and had to fly at a slow pace.
When contacted, the PIA spokesperson said an inquiry committee had been formed to probe the incident.
Source: http://nation.com.pk
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