The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) barely resembles anything a national air carrier is supposed to be, and looks more and more like a local bus transit company due to the services on offer. The constant barrage of mistakes, delays and hold-ups are on one side, but PIA has now put the life of its customers in jeopardy by its laxity towards the rules on more than one occasion. Engine failures aside, the airline stooped to a new low altogether, when seven extra passengers were boarded onto a plane from Karachi to Madinah, and were made to stand throughout the three-hour long journey.
In the event of any accident, or even turbulence for that matter, these passengers had no seat belts or oxygen masks, meaning they would have lost their lives at the slightest hint of something going wrong. PIA’s staff would have to take full responsibility had this happened. The fact that these passengers boarded the flight with handwritten boarding passes tells us that no one in the airline, from those at the counters checking passengers in, to the hostesses present on the plane and the pilot that decided to fly the plane as is, are too concerned with the safety and security of the passengers.
No action has been taken for this gross violation of international air safety, which tells us that the management is no different from the staff that allowed for this to happen. There are at least a dozen safety protocols that they broke not to mention laws. If the staff and management are indifferent about this, they should be fired or at least be punished. If the whole organisation just does not care about breaking safety codes, it should be privatised and overhauled immediately.