KARACHI: Over 100 passengers from India stayed at the Jinnah Terminal for nearly 12 hours after their aircraft going to Dubai from New Delhi made a technical landing at the Karachi Airport on Tuesday.
The Boeing-737 MAX 8 aircraft of the Indian SpiceJet Airline made the technical landing at the Karachi Airport at around 9:17am after developing a technical fault. The cockpit crew of the flight observed an extraordinary reduction in fuel quantity in one of the tanks. The pilots decided to divert the aircraft to Karachi to avert a mid-air emergency. The Air Traffic Control at the Karachi Airport granted permission for the technical landing.
The engineers from PIA inspected the Indian plane. After the inspection, they declared that the aircraft shouldn’t fly till the rectification of the fault. The aircraft carried 132 passengers and 12 crew members.
The passengers disembarked and were shifted to the transit lounge of the Jinnah Terminal. The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority took care of the passengers in the best possible manner; they were served meals and refreshments. They waited for the arrival of the alternative plane from India.
The alternative SpiceJet aircraft reached Karachi from Mumbai at around 6pm and departed at around 9pm. The shifting of the luggage and other necessary baggage from one SpiceJet aircraft to another took considerable time. Other SpiceJet flights have also developed technical problems in the recent past.