The license of a senior pilot and a first officer of the Pakistan International Airlines have been revoked by the country's civil aviation regulator for carrying more passengers than the maximum allowed on a flight to Saudi Arabia in January, according to a media report today.
Warning letters have also been issued by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to the ground staff including the terminal manager and the flight supervisor of Pakistan's flag carrier, Dawn newspaper reported.
The PIA had allowed seven passengers to travel standing in the aisles all the way from Karachi to Madina on January 20, prompting a probe into the serious breach of security regulations by the loss-making airline.
Senior pilot Anwer Adil and first officer Adeel Javed had operated the flight in which excess number of passengers had to stand throughout the over three-hour-long flight which was a serious threat to air safety, the newspaper quoted highly- placed sources as saying.
The Boeing 777 aircraft has a seating capacity of 409, including jump seats for staff, while flight PK-743 carried 416 passengers.
The CAA directive, issued on August 30, ordered that the pilot's license of Capt Adil be revoked for a year, while that of first officer Javed for three months.
"Terminal manager Shah and flight supervisor Shahani are issued with a letter of warning under intimation to the CAA.
"Senior purser Hina Turab be awarded a letter of advice," stated the directive sent to PIA's director of flight operations.
Earlier it was reported that the senior purser (flight attendant), Hina Turab, had informed the captain about "chaos" in the cabin because the passengers were "over and above" the configuration, but the captain told her to "adjust" those passengers as the aircraft was on the taxi way.
The boarding passes issued to the extra passengers were hand-written and not computer-generated, reports had said.
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