- The U.S. Department of Transportation has decided to ban Pakistan International Airlines from operating flights to the United States.
- The decision comes about after allegations that one third of Pakistani pilots were operating aircraft with falsified credentials.
- Before the incident, PIA was working with U.S. authorities to restore non-stop service to the country.
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It’s like one of those SAW movies where the walls just keep closing in. That’s how Pakistan International Airlines officials must feel right now. Following the UK and EU ban, PIA was also slapped with a similar ban by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), according to a Bloomberg report.
This isn’t as much of a big deal as PIA did not operate scheduled non-stop flights to the U.S. as passengers traveling there would have had to stop in Manchester in order to be cleared by security before heading to their final destination.
As PIA was bleeding money stopping in Manchester, they were working to restore non-stop service from Pakistan to various U.S. destinations.
The decision to ban the airline from flying to United States came about after Pakistan’s aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan stated that 262 of over 850 Pakistani pilots allegedly had questionable credentials. The revelation caused waves in the industry, as PIA and unions cast doubt on the claims after examining the list of accused pilots. However, the airline is still working with authorities to carry out a proper investigation and will ground any pilots found to have falsified credentials.
The minister’s allegations were brought to light in parliament after PIA flight 8303 crashed in Karachi due to a series of missteps during a go-around. The incident claimed a total of 98 lives (97 on board the aircraft and 1 on the ground).
[Featured Photo: BriYYZ/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)]
