ISLAMABAD, 13 July 2006 — The Pakistani Cabinet yesterday decided to ground all Fokker planes operated by state-run Pakistan International Airlines after one of the aircraft crashed near the eastern city of Multan this week, killing all 45 people on board.
The decision that PIA should not fly the planes was made at the Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, a senior government official said.
All the PIA Fokker planes will stop flying from today, he said.
The official said there were five Fokkers in the PIA fleet, but airline officials said earlier there were six, operating mostly on less busy domestic routes.
A PIA Fokker F-27 turboprop plane went down Monday in a field soon after takeoff from Multan airport on a flight to Lahore, and exploded in flames.
All 41 passengers and four crew members were killed in the crash. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
