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Hijack hoax

delays PIA flight

KARACHI: An anonymous telephone call about the presence of a "hijacker" on a Quetta-bound PIA flight (PK-325) delayed it by three hours besides casting a bad effect on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Thursday.

The call was received at the flight inquiry counter at Islamabad airport at 12:50 pm. The caller told the flight inquiry duty officer that a hijacker is on the flight, which was to leave Islamabad airport at 12:45 pm. The call was received while the plane was on taxi to take off for Quetta.

The flight had 108 passengers on board.

The duty officer immediately informed the flight operation, which passed on the message to flight Capt. Naveed Aziz.

Capt Naveed brought the plane back and offloaded all passengers and baggage.

The plane was then subjected to search and after security clearance at 3:15 pm it was allowed to take-off for Quetta. It took off at 3:40 pm and landed at Quetta at 5:00 pm.

The news about delay of the flight on account of alleged presence of a "hijacker" on board the plane spread like wild fire.ÑAPP