More PIA High Drama over Karachi

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What: PIA Pakistan International Airlines Avion de Transport Regional ATR-42-500 en route from Karachi to Bahawalpur
Where: Karachi
When: Apr 27th 2012
Who: Belligerent Passenger, 52 aboard
Why: While en route, economy class passenger Javed Ansari had words with a flight attendant. Those words included threats that sounded like hijack attempts to someone. The passenger told authorities that he “hurled a threat after a quarrel with attendants Sadaf Mansoor and Mehreen Fatima, but had no intention to hijack the aircraft.” Ansari was offloaded in Karachi and escorted away by Airport Security Force commandos and handed off to police. The flight was delayed almost three hours.

Xinhua news reported that Urdu TV channel ARY News said Ansari followed the attendants into the cockpit and asked the captain to divert the flight. This was reported as a foiled hijack attempt, where the pilot tricked the hijacker by claiming the plane had to return to Karachi for an emergency landing. Ansari says he was “joking.”