Islamabad (Web Desk): The PIA’s employees sacrificed a black goat at Benazir Bhutto Airport in Islamabad on Sunday a moments before the ATR jet took off for the first time after shakedown tests.
This action is taken in order to seek divine intervention to keep a flight safe and secure, days after a deadly crash of PIA’s flight-661 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa near Havelian region causing more than 47.
Actually the ritual took place to ward off any ‘evils’ to avoid accidents moments before resuming flights.
The PIA had grounded all of its 10 ATR aircraft after the Civil Aviation Authority ordered shakedown tests of the planes.
The airline said in a statement, “It has been decided to keep all 10 ATR aircraft grounded till they are cleared after a thorough examination”.
It added the temporary suspension of ATR operation “will affect PIA’s flights to smaller airports like Gwadar, Turbat, Panjgur, Mohenjo Daro, Zhob, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Chitral and Gilgit.”
It seems that Pakistan International Airlines just can’t get a break these days.
PIA airline is facing multiple challenges to its public image these days, most of it overwhelming negative. The airline is facing record losses, trying to restore its image, coming under fire for selling as aircraft for peanuts, and reeling over the crash of the PK-661.
But just when you think that PIA’s public image won’t go any below than it already is, along comes a new development that manages to do just that.