Rat On Board PIA Flight Causes Passenger Violence

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It's not often I quote a news report totally verbatim but this, thanks to pal Angus, just begs to be digested in full and at leisure.

I particularly love the reaction of the passengers on the delayed Dubai flight.

I have edited not one word from the below. And they're not even taking the Mickey - here's the link so's you can confirm I'm on the straight and narrow!

Another rat found in plane

By: Amraiz Khan | Published: April 27, 2009 LAHORE - Yet another rat was spotted in a PIA aircraft prior its take-off from the Allama Iqbal International Airport on Sunday.

The flight PK-758, which was scheduled for Lahore-Karachi-London air-route, had come from London at the Lahore airport. Unlike the last incident wherein business class passengers of PK-258 saw a rat, this time, it was the pilot himself who spotted the dubious movements of the mouse.

This was the second mouse infested PIA flight. The pilot later refused to operate the aircraft any further till the removal of the rat, said sources in the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

The plane wherein the pilot found the mouse was scheduled to fly back to London as PK-787. But due to his refusal, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) management arranged another 777 aircraft to cover the same route. The 777 aircraft was originally supposed to operate as PK-203 for Dubai at 8:45 am, but in order to make it available for London the PIA management delayed the 777’s Dubai operation by 1:00 am, April 27.

The passengers of the Dubai flight started protesting when their flight was delayed. The CAA had to call police and ASF when the protesting pasesngers became violent.

As per details, the pilot of the flight PK-758 saw the rat on board and refused to operate it back as PK-787 Lahore-Karachi-London, saying that it could be hazardous for the flying.

As per sources in the PIA and CAA, the airport management tried to convince the pilot for further flight but he refused to do so, saying that the presence of the rat could cause an mishap.

However, after a short discourse the pilot became ready to take the flight as ferry flight (with no passengers and cabin crew) to Karachi.

*** OH NOES! IT GETS BETTER! ***

Thanks to eagle-eyed Twitterpal Kawthar, I can now share the FOLLOWUP story. Hang on there, readers, this is going to be a bumpy ride!

Another rat found in plane

By: Amraiz Khan | Published: April 27, 2009 The panic-stricken PIA Flight Control located at Karachi cancelled the Dubai-bound PK-203, to be operated by another Boeing 777 with 300 passengers, most of whom had checked-in or were in the process to do so. This caused a lot of anger amongst the passengers, some of them with visa restrictions to enter by 26 April, while most of them had prior business commitments in Dubai.

The police and ASF were called in to calm the agitators after they came to know that London bound passengers were given preference, when PIA decided to detail the Dubai bound aircraft for London flight, while delaying the Dubai flight till 1 am on 27 April, which will be operated by a Boeing 777 returning from New York as PK-712.

Meanwhile, the rat infested Boeing 777 was ferried by PIA to Karachi, without any passenger, since it was not cleared for normal operation by the CAA.

The PIA sources have disclosed that rats find their way into planes by means of cargo containers lying at cargo sheds. Other places for their entrance are the catering vans and Avio Bridges from where passengers embark.

When contacted the PIA spokesman said that no rat was witnessed in the plane but plane was operated as ferry flight to Karachi because of some technical reasons. But the Civil Aviation Vigilance section confirmed the presence of mouse in PK-758.

Another update, July 2009!!!

MORE rats found on PIA flights! And the cheeky buggers are trying to blame HEATHROW! Here's the link - and above is a nice history of rat infested flights that haven't been near good old LHR!