The United Kingdom (UK) Department for Transport confirmed on Tuesday that Pakistan’s national flag carrier, PIA, would continue to remain on its air safety list.
The UK Air Safety List contains the list of those countries and airlines that cannot fly to, from or within the UK because of ban on safety grounds.
Media reports suggested that UK authorities keep delaying its decision regarding lifting the ban from Pakistan International Airlines.
UK Air Safety authorities were expected to announce its decision of lifting the ban on March 20 but the announcement was postponed to March 25 (today). However, the decision has now been further delayed owing to a recent incident when a PIA plane landed in Lahore with a rear wheel missing.
PIA launched investigations after PK 306 landed at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport without a rear wheel, raising concerns over aviation safety.
During the routine post-landing inspection, it was discovered that the plane’s rear tires were missing. According to sources, the tire was intact when the flight took off from Karachi, and the aircraft completed a normal landing and taxiing process in Lahore.
Further investigations remained unsuccessful in figuring out when the tires went missing from the plane and could not be located either in Karachi or Lahore.
However, after receiving a notification from Lahore’s Air Traffic Control (ATC), a part of the tire shaft was later located at Karachi airport.
Reports suggested that the tire might have been detached from the plane during mid-flight, raising concerns about aviation security protocols.
PIA faced bans from the European Union, UK and US in 2020 after then-PTI’s aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan alleged in the infamous speech that PIA pilots were operating planes with fake licenses.
That claim by the minister came after PIA plane crashed into Karachi, taking almost 100 people’s lives.
Following that, PIA was banned from flying over multiple regions. However, after almost five years, PIA resumed its direct flight to Paris in January 2025 following strict adherence to international aviation safety protocols.
