PIA Airbus A300 Takeoff from Male Airport

[Abbas Ali]

Takeoff by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Airbus A300B4-203 (AP-BAX) under the command of Capt. Asad Ali from Runway 18 of Male International Airport, Maldives, on August 26, 1993.



Thanks to Umar Anis for this video.

Abbas

[Abbas Ali]

Photos taken on same day i.e. August 26, 1993.


AP-BAX under the command of Capt. Asad Ali approaching Male Airport.


AP-BAX at Male Airport.

Abbas

[Nasir]

Nice video. The blue sea lapping at the edges of the runway looks downright inviting!

A few things stood out as oddities in the conversation just prior to the takeoff:

• The captain was actually willing to turn the airplane (which was ready to perform a takeoff roll) back to the terminal so that a passenger can get off and look for a missing item. It's like asking a bride as she's about to sign the nikah nama, "beti, you really don't have a problem with this arranged marriage to the one-eyed hunchback, right?"

• The change of story from Aijaz- when first inquired by the captain whether the passenger wants to get off, Aijaz says "utarne ka faida nahin hai koi bhi", then as part of further conversation, says "jee haan lagta hai inshallah mil jaye ga...". Then finally when the captain says that he is willing to take the plane back to the terminal, Aijaz replies "mil gya hai sir, mil gya hai". Considering the passenger was already seated somewhere in the back ("voh to baith gya hai seat pe..."), and was not in constant communication with this Aijaz, seems to me Aijaz just made up the last statement of "mil gya hai sir" to close the matter and get the flight going.

Have aircrafts ever turned back on whims so that passengers can go back to look for missing items?! The captain looked pretty prepared to take the plane back to the terminal (but then again, he also didn't question Aijaz's obvious altering-by-the-minute story...).

[Abbas Ali]

It seems that affected passenger who misplaced or lost some item thought that a female passenger seated next to him by mistake took his baggage piece while disembarking from the aircraft at Male Airport. The flight crew in their discussion also say that it will be useless to drop the affected passenger at Male Airport as that female passenger must already have gone somewhere after taking a boat.

Here, I would like to add that from Male Airport boats and seaplanes operated by various companies take passengers to various islands of Maldives.

Seaplane terminal at Male Airport.

Click here to see large photo.

Btw, in 1990s PIA operated flights to/from Male on following two routes:

Karachi->Male->Colombo->Karachi.
Karachi->Colombo->Male->Karachi.

Abbas