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.
PIA = Pain in Ass
Can you imagine the the terminal announcements? “Now boarding Zone 1……Now sacrificing a goat at Gate 17…. Now boarding Zone 2….”
@Thing 1
9 out of 10. If only you had included the word(s) ‘savages’ and/or ‘filth’ into your comment, then it would be perfect.
You see, it’s not about the pilot or the airline, who are clearly not meeting air safety standards; it’s about pre-judging and stereotyping a group of people, a nationality and ethnicity in this case, based on the misbehavior or odd beliefs of a few. Oh, the joy of mocking those that are different from us! Yippie!
Thanks as always to Gary for being a ‘free speech absolutist’ and for not moderating his comments sections. May the subtle racism and sometimes overt ethnic slurs bring you more and more outrage, engagement, clicks, and referrals!
Racism, nastiness and zero education about PIA. Are you saying US based Airlines are perfect ? At least on PIA no one is dragged off with racist aggression. At least passengers are fed more than a bag of nuts and, if you are lucky the Stewardess is in a good mood, a drink. Please kindly ensure all American carriers are perfect before writing trashy, racist crap
In all fairness Southwest made a similar blunder in PWM as well, less than a year ago..
Maybe if Gary wasn’t an ignorant person, he would’ve known about the significance of sacrificing of the goat. I’ve also seen his ill-willed and asinine comments addressed towards Pakistan in general as well.
Sad and pathetic.
Well, I suppose there’s something to be said for consistency….
Hey, goat sacrificing is not just a Pakistani thing. When I lived In Miami there was a “goat squad” that had to clean up the sacrifices around the courthouse each morning. That was related to Voodoo and_or Santeria. It even worked it’s way into a Dave Barry movie
Sorry, 1990, I didn’t mean to insult your girlfriend.
And in case that goes over your head, I’m implying that she’s a goat.
I stopped reading when I saw ‘Pakistan’, enuff said. Thanks, Gary, for posting the story; that it got through the PC/DEI censors is amazing.
I use this goat sacrifice described above pretty regularly in conversation about airport service. “They slaughtered a goat when I got to the airport.” I am flying today. No goats were slaughtered!
Re Jacobin777, goat sacrifice appears in no IATA manual. Goat sacrifice stands out and speaks to your decision making process as an airline. You need to get over your pro-goat slaughter views. This is Trump’s America now!
@Jacobin777
Which would be surprising — a Jew who does not know about Abraham!
I’m thinking 500,000 AA miles just might be a winning bid for PIA