KARACHI: An aircraft of Pakistan International Airlines that had been stranded in Burundi for four days returned and landed in the federal capital on Tuesday morning, it is learnt here reliably.

According to sources, the PIA’s Boeing 777 had been stranded as the aircraft’s Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) was not working properly and the ground power unit at the airport was also not in working condition so the aircraft remained grounded at the Bujumbura (Burundi) airport for four days. Without the ground support equipment the aircraft could not fly.

They said that the ground support unit was brought in from Burundi’s western neighbouring country, Congo, by road which after passing through a civil war-affected area took three to four days to reach Burundi’s airport after which PIA aircraft flew for Pakistan early on Tuesday morning (Pakistan time) and reached Islamabad at around 10am.

The PIA aircraft had been chartered by Askari Aviation to bring Pakistani soldiers performing UN peacekeeping duties in the eastern African country. The PIA has already sent two flights and brought the soldiers back. This was the third and final flight that got stranded.

Responding to Dawn queries on Tuesday, PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar said that the PIA’s chartered flight finally took off from Burundi.

Paris incident

Meanwhile, a show cause notice has been issued to the PIA’s Station manager in Paris, Matiullah Khan, for allegedly failing to handle a situation owing to which passengers in a PIA aircraft experienced severe suffocation and an infant was affected a few days back, it is learnt here reliably.

According to sources, the aircraft after having its doors closed and leaving the terminal had stayed at ground for a considerably long time and its APU / other equipment were also not operating properly, and as the ground support unit (air conditioning van) had also left so without the airconditioning the passengers started to feel suffocation and an infant was particularly affected.

A video regarding the incident had gone viral a few days back, which prompted the airline to initiate an inquiry.

The sources said that the action was also being initiated against the pilot of the aircraft, Rao A. Taimur, for not handling the situation effectively.

Responding to Dawn queries on Tuesday, PIA spokesperson Tajwar said that a show cause notice has been issued to the PIA’s station manager in Paris over his poor performance and mishandling the flight PK-750 on Aug 3, 2018.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018