Hull i vingen med religiøse innslag - Curt Lewis

Faulty aircraft: Pilot finds hole in Shaheen Air's plane

PESHAWAR: The pilot of a Shaheen Air passenger plane refused to fly the aircraft after he found a hole in one of the wings of the plane seconds before departing for Saudi Arabia.

An official at Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar told The Express Tribune around 330 passengers were scheduled to depart from the airport on flight NL-721 at 10:15pm on Monday, to reach Jeddah. However, when the pilot reached the cockpit, he saw one of the wings had a hole in it and could possibly crash seconds after taking off from the runway.

The official added the passengers had their boarding passes and were on board when the pilot came to know about the fault in the aircraft. It had not been checked by the engineers.

"Yes, it was found out at the eleventh hour; the pilot refused to fly the plane with a hole in one of its wings, saying it will crash within seconds," said a senior official at the airport, requesting anonymity.

He added a scuffle broke out between the engineering staff and the management since the flight was ready and the passengers on board were in ihram (a sacred state which a Muslim must enter in to perform umrah). The official added some older adult passengers fell ill as it was considerably cold in the city at that time.

"The passengers were eventually told the flight was delayed and would fly at 6pm on Tuesday," he said. That flight was then further delayed till 8am Wednesday (today). The official added the first flight was delayed for nearly 20 hours whereas the second one was postponed for 10 hours.

Shaheen Air staff members at the airport cited technical reasons for the delay of the flight. When Station Manager Muhammad Mushtaq was contacted for his statement on the issue, he hung up and refused to respond to other calls.