PIA plane coming from Kabul escapes accident

The PIA flight PK-252 with 107 passengers aboard, coming from Kabul, was hit by some ‘hard object’, damaging its windscreen.—File photo

LAHORE: Just a day after an Airblue plane crashed into Margalla Hills in Islamabad killing all 152 people on board, a Pakistan International Airline plane coming from Kabul escaped an accident.

The PIA flight PK-252 with 107 passengers aboard took off from Kabul airport on Thursday afternoon for Islamabad.

According to a source in the Civil Aviation Authority, some ‘hard object’ hit the plane, a Boeing 737, damaging its windscreen.

“When it was approaching Islamabad airport the control tower asked the pilot to divert the flight to Lahore as weather was rough,” he said. The plane landed at the Allama Iqbal International Airport at 6.10pm.

According to PIA spokesperson Yasmin Haroon, the sight panel’s outer cover of the windscreen cracked when it took off from Kabul. She said the plane did not make an emergency landing at Lahore airport.

Ms Haroon said that passengers would leave for Islamabad on Friday at 9am.