"The officials sacrificed a goat yesterday as a gesture of gratitude as the ATR aircraft resumed flight operations," a PIA official was quoted as saying by local media.
The official, however, clarified that it was not a management-level decision.
Later, the plane left for Multan, making it the first ATR-42 aircraft to be pressed into service since the start of shakedown tests on all such aircraft in the wake of the air crash near Havelian on December 7 that killed all 47 people on board, including pop singer-turned-Islamic preacher Junaid Jamshed.
The grounding of the ATR fleet had badly affected the PIA's flights to and from cities and towns like Gwadar, Turbat, Panjgur, Moenjodaro, Zhob, Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan, Chitral and Gilgit.
The ATR 42-500 is a twin turboprop regional aircraft that carries 48 passengers in standard configuration. ATR aircraft are capable of operations on both paved and unpaved strips. The engines are built by US manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.
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