London: Nightmare for PIA flight passengers is over after 55 hours

LONDON: The nightmare for over 300 PIA flight passengers stranded in London for 55 hours finally ended as the plane took off from the Heathrow Airport today (Thursday).

Our correspondent says the flight was supposed to take off on Tuesday night at 8:00 pm but at the last minute the passengers were told that the plane had developed a problem and that the PIA could not run any risk with the flight.

It took the local PIA management 4 hours to get the passengers in the hotels near Heathrow and those living in London went to their homes. The passengers included mainly families, planning to spend Christmas and New Year holidays with their dear ones in Pakistan but their plans were effectively ruined.

PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar told the correspondent that the flight was delayed due to a “software issue related to control panel. Due to Christmas holidays, it was difficult to obtain local services and logistics support in London. Engineers along with parts to be replaced were sent from Pakistan. Due to shortage of fleet, no spare aircraft was available as rescue flight.”