The Pakistan International Airlines flight PK301 made an emergency landing at the Islamabad International Airport on Sunday and then aborted the take-off twice, scaring the already panicked passengers to death.
Eventually, most of them refused to board the aircraft which took off with only six passengers.
The flight was travelling from Islamabad to Karachi when a sudden technical fault was discovered in the airplane’s engine, according to PIA Spokesperson Abdullah Khan.
The Airbus A320 (reg. AP-BLB) consequently, made an emergency landing 25 minutes after taking off for the first time.
“The pilot immediately contacted air traffic control and then retuned to the Islamabad airport,” Khan said.
A team of engineers checked and fixed the issue. However, when the flight tried to take off again, loud noise from one of the engines was heard. This scared the passengers who had been waiting in the aircraft for over six hours.
PIA CEO Arshad Malik also arrived at the airport.
Another take-off attempt proved no different and the scared passengers refused to fly.
They had been sitting in the aircraft since 11am when the plane first took off and then made the emergency landing at 1135am.
After a protest from the passengers, the authorities opened the aircraft doors and almost everyone deboarded.
The aircraft took off only with six passengers at around 545pm.
PIA CEO Malik told SAMAA TV that they had offered other passengers to travel by another flight.
According to flight tracking websites PK103 landed at Karachi airport at about 730pm.