PIA aircraft escapes drone

KARACHI: Police have launched a search operation in Sohrab Goth and its adjoining areas for a ‘drone’ after a Sukkur-bound plane escaped a possible accident on Friday evening.

According to police officials, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-536 was en-route to Sukkur from the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi. Shortly after the plane took off from the airport and reached near the Afghan Basti area in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth, a ‘drone’ came close to the aircraft suddenly.

The pilot of the aircraft immediately informed the control tower about the presence of the drone. Later, the Civil Aviation Authority informed the police about the incident.

Extra contingent of police, while following the incident, gathered in the Sohrab Goth areas and its surroundings and began a search operation in the area about the drone and its operator. According to district Malir police spokesperson, the police were looking for the drone and its operator. Talking to The News, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Irfan Ali Bahadur said that after receiving the information, police mobiles were moved to Sohrab Goth and Gulshan-e-Maymar areas where they had thoroughly checked houses and also led a search operation at the farmhouses there.

However, despite several hours of search, no camera-based drone was found, SSP Bahadur said. They had also talked to the locals of the area who had denied any such drone flight. He added that they had also tried to contact the pilot of the said flight whose cell-phone was switched off. However, police have been deployed in concerned areas.