Karachi: Pakistan’s state-run airline is investigating how seven passengers travelled from Karachi to Saudi Arabia while standing in the aisle of a flight, which has been described by authorities as a serious breach of air safety regulations.
The Boeing 777 had a total capacity of 409 seats, including jump seats for the staff, but carried 416 passengers.
The matter was reported by the influential Dawn newspaper on Friday, prompting an investigation by the airline, which has been plagued by controversies and mounting losses in recent years.
The additional passengers were issued hand-written boarding passes, instead of computer-generated ones, for the three-hour flight. The flight’s computer-generated list, provided to the aircraft crew by ground traffic staff, did not mention the seven passengers.