PIA flight makes emergency landing due to technical fault

LAHORE (92 News) – A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, PK-759, from Lahore to Jeddah on Sunday made emergency landing at Lahore airport due to a technical fault in the aircraft. A PIA flight narrowly escaped from accident as its engine caught fire soon after taking off at airport and the passengers were offloaded after its fire alarm system malfunctioned.  The pilot timely made emergency landing after which, all 130 passengers were safely rescued. According to PIA spokesperson Mashood Tajwar, there was no fire on the plane, as other news outlets were reporting. The fire alarm went off, he said, but it wasn’t due to a fire. “It was a technical issue in the avionic system,” he explained. The fire warning system wasn’t working properly, he said, adding that this is the system that tells you if there is a fire. “Because of that malfunction, we grounded the flight. PIA doesn’t fly with faulty planes,” he added. The plane has been changed and is now ready to leave, he said. About 200 passengers were onboard PK-759 when it took off at 9.30am. The flight will now take off at 12pm in a different aircraft. “PIA's staff is taking care of the passengers in the airport lounge,” the spokesperson said. On August 26, a Lahore-bound flight of PIA escaped from crash after bird hit aircraft’s engine near Lahore. According to the reports, the PIA flight suffered serious damage after a bird hit aircraft’s engine. The flight PK-758 was coming from London to Lahore. The Boeing 777 aircraft’s engine number one received considerable damage due to the bird hit. Meanwhile, the pilot of the aircraft successfully landed at the airport. Subsequently, the aircraft was grounded for maintenance. On July 17, the flight operations at Allama Iqbal International Airport have been disrupted due to the presence of a huge flock of birds creating trouble during landing and departure of airplanes.