LAHORE: With ground vehicles and equipment bumping into two Pakistan International Airlines aircraft at Allama Iqbal International Airport, disabling the planes and impacting flight operations, as a consequence of Tuesday’s powerful windstorm and rain in the provincial metropolis.
The set of accidents occurred when very extremely strong winds made ground vehicles and an out of control Ambulift to hit the PIA aircraft.
Confirming the accident, the PIA spokesman said that the two aircraft were grounded post technical inspection.
According to airport sources, PIA flight PK654 was about to fly to Islamabad from Lahore while PK244 (originally flying from Dammam to Sialkot) had to be diverted the provincial capital because of a severe thunderstorm that struck Punjab on Tuesday evening.
Both the aircraft suffered severe damages during the accidents and will not be able to fly without proper repairs.
Pictures obtained by ProPakistani show that both the planes are no more airworthy. Pictures clearly show that the Ambulift not only damaged the body of the Airbus 320 but has made a sizable hole in the aircraft body.
Since PIA possesses no repair facility at Lahore airport, the aircraft body parts and a team of engineers will fly from Karachi to repair the damage. The work is likely to take around three days, impacting PIA flight operations.
