Hoax call delays Dubai-bound PIA flight

[hasan saleem]

RAWALPINDI, Nov 14: A Dubai-bound PIA flight was delayed at Islamabad airport when two women were offloaded after receiving a call from PIA Karachi authorities that they were carrying some “dangerous material” in their baggage, sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

The sources said that Quaid-i-Azam International Airport authorities in Karachi received an anonymous call that a woman and her daughter aboard PK-211, which was scheduled to take off at 4.15pm, were carrying some dangerous material in their baggage.

Soon after receiving the call, the air security staff picked up the two women, identified as N. Bibi and her daughter Uzma, 20, from the international departure lounge and seized their baggage. However, nothing dangerous was recovered from their baggage that created quite a scene, as N. Bibi refused to board the plane unless her son-in-law (a serving major) was brought to the airport in uniform and made to apologise to her for his “mischief”.

“I have been insulted and my son-in-law is responsible for this,” the lady said. The sources quoted her saying that she had an altercation with her son-in-law.

The airline management offered the two ladies transport to take them back to their home in Ganjmandi, Rawalpindi, but they refused, insisting that the major be brought to the airport and made to apologise. They were sitting at the airport till the filing of the report in the evening.

© DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2006