Pakistan International Airline (PIA) bound for Dubai safely landed at the destination despite a mid-air emergency. The PIA flight carrying passengers to Dubai at 2 AM last night developed an emergency mid-air when the flight was passing the Muscat region.
However, despite the emergency, the flight landed safely in Dubai. The aircraft, which was flying at an altitude of 36,000 feet, suddenly descended to a critical altitude of 10,000ft over the Gulf of Oman in just six minutes, prompting the pilot to declare an emergency on the radar at 3:08 am, according to a PIA spokesperson.
The pilot of the flight requested assistance from the air traffic control in Muscat and realized that the aircraft’s hydraulic system had suffered a severe malfunction. The pilot managed to fix the hydraulic system during the flight.
The PIA spokesperson revealed that initially, the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing at Muscat Airport. The pilot continues to fly at a low altitude of 10,000 ft for the next 50 minutes. Furthermore, the PIA spokesperson revealed that the aircraft was inspected at the Dubai airport, after which it was dispatched to the next flight.
Read more: Fly Jinnah makes emergency landing after aircraft caught fire
The Airbus A320 then traveled back to Islamabad and then to Skardu. When asked about the emergency, he said the incident happened due to the shortage of aircraft and administrative issues in the airline. The airline faces a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ban from its most lucrative routes in Europe and Britain after a PIA plane crash in Karachi in 2020 killed nearly 100, which was followed by a scandal over pilot licenses.
Yesterday, Pakistan’s private airline Fly Jinnah averted a fatal accident after the flight made an emergency landing in Lahore at Allama Iqbal International Airport.
The Fly Jinnah flight carrying 171 passengers from Karachi to Lahore caught fire mid-way, causing the flight to make an emergency landing after issuing a ‘mayday’ call to the airport authorities. All passengers and crew remained safe in the incident. Flight FL-846 left Karachi on Monday evening, according to the Pakistan Airport Authority.