ISLAMABAD, May 4: Four aircraft of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have been damaged over the past 20 days at Jinnah International Airport, reportedly because of lapses in ground handling by a private firm.

The latest victim is an ATR aircraft which collided with a vehicle on Thursday. The aircraft with tail number AP-BHN suffered damage to its skin, landing gear and one of the doors. One of the newest aircraft in the airline's fleet, it was commissioned on April 6.

The aircraft has been grounded for repairs. Engineers say it will remain out of service for a few days in view of the nature of the damage and delays in procurement of spares. The latest bad patch for the airline, which has been in crisis for quite some time and suffered losses close to Rs4 billion during the first quarter of the current year, started with a collision between two Boeing-777s on April 14. The tail of one of the aircraft clipped the tail cone of the other when being towed at Karachi airport prior to a flight.

There was a close miss on April 12, in which the tug master started pushing back an aircraft (flight PK-370) at a time when another aircraft was taxiing and the two narrowly avoided a collision.

Again, on April 25, an Airbus (flight PK-370) was hit by a cargo-loading vehicle.

A Thai airline aircraft was reportedly hit by a catering van during ground servicing.

The ground handling was outsourced by PIA to a foreign firm last year for improving quality.

Although exact estimates of losses due to these incidents were not available, but sources say they are in excess of half a million dollars in terms of revenue loss, disruption in flight schedule and repairs and spares cost.