About 200 passengers and crew of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight to Saudi Arabia from Islamabad had a narrow escape when the aircraft experienced a technical problem on Wednesday night.
The plane landed safely at Karachi Airport.
A PIA official said: “The Airbus 310-300 was flying from Islamabad to Madinah on Wednesday evening when the hydraulic system experienced a problem.”
In a statement, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority said the pilot detected a fault in the hydraulic system shortly after takeoff from Islamabad at 8 p.m.
The plane was flying over Karachi when they reported the hydraulic trouble and made the decision to divert to Karachi. The aircraft landed safely about two hours after departure from Islamabad. A replacement Airbus left Karachi three hours later and landed in Madinah four hours behind schedule yesterday.
The PIA, whose planes were banned by the European Commission from flying to Europe because of safety concerns of an aging fleet, has been in the news for technical problems in the past.
The PIA fleet consists of 38 aircraft, of which at least seven remain grounded for maintenance and technical reasons. The airline requires additional aircraft to serve its Haj pilgrim passengers this year.
The Pakistani government recently announced the lease of an additional eight Boeing aircraft: three 777s and five 737s.
Currently PIA operates 38 international and 24 domestic routes.
PIA flight to Madinah makes emergency landing
