Another Dark Day For Pakistan Airlines: Pilots Land On Unauthorized Runway With Lights Off In Shocking Blunder

Pakistan International Airlines – arguably the worst airline in the world, known for sacrificing a goat as part of its maintenance procedures and flying with more passengers on board than seats, and pilots with fake licenses – is under scrutiny again after flight PK150 from Dammam, Saudi Arabia to Multan, Pakistan diverted to Lahore and landed on the wrong runway.

The pilots of the Airbus A320, registration AP-BON, faced heavy fog at Multan, and were cleared to land on the primary runway at Lahore on Friday. However they touched down on runway 36L instead of the designated 36R. And the runway lights for 36L where they landed were even turned off at the time.

PIA, which was just cleared by safety regulators to restore flights to Europe, has grounded the flight’s captain and first officer. In the past, though, systemic issues across the airline were flagged – with cockpit resource management virtually non-existent at the carrer.

Unable to afford even jet fuel, the Pakistan national carrier has been limiting its flight and the government has been attempting a sale despite labor backlash, because privatization threatens running the carrier as a fiefdom and piggy bank of corruption for staff. Previous privatization protests turned violent in clashes with police involving rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas.

Before the pandemic PIA announced plans to fly to the U.S. starting in 2020, and even claiming the U.S. would allow them to handle their own security. This seems… unlikely.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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