ISLAMABAD, June 22: Four pilots of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have suffered heart attacks in recent weeks because of the growing work pressure, adding to the woes of the already beleaguered airline.

The Pakistan Airline Pilots’ Association (Palpa) has attributed the incidence to ‘accumulated stress’ and claimed that this rate was much higher than global aviation industries.

“Pilots are not getting required off-days because of the shortage of pilots, heavy schedule and poor planning,” Palpa president Captain Khalid Hamza said, adding that the fatigue had begun to take its toll.

A pilot says that one of the contributory factors is airline’s policy of relating pilots’ remuneration to the time they fly and stay out, prompting them to fly more.

All the four pilots who suffered heart attacks fly Boeing 777s that are catering for most of the flights to the European Union and North America following an EU ban on PIA’s ageing fleet.

The PIA, Palpa said, was flying short of 39 cockpit crew sets on Boeing 777.

The association holds the Civil Aviation Authority responsible for the shortage of pilots.

Mr Hamza said that delays in line checks of Boeing 737 pilots because of issues over the qualification of the CAA inspector were blocking the promotion of pilots.

Admitting that four pilots have suffered heart attacks, the PIA management contended that this figure was negligible considering the number of pilots in the airline.

The management disputed the Palpa’s claim of ‘accumulated stress’ and said: “There is no question of accumulated stress as pilots’ duty hours are rigorously being observed.”

When asked that several pilots were flying with medical conditions, the airline management said that this was something allowed according to mandatory medical guidelines governing pilots’ flight operations under the supervision of the PIAC chief flight surgeon and CAA’s directorate of aero-medicine.

A source put the number of pilots flying with medical conditions at about 40 per cent of the pilots’ strength in the airline.