PIA flight PK791 carrying 175 passengers on-board aborted its take-off from Islamabad Airport at 09:00 am Thursday. The aircraft involved is an A310 wet leased from a Turkish company along with its cockpit crew.
The Captain observed malfunctioning in one of its engines, therefore, in the interest of safety he decided to stop the aircraft, which due to high speed led to deflation of its main gear tyres.
According to Airbus Manufacturers' Technical Manual, the deflation of tyres is linked with application of severe breaking as a built-in feature of the aircraft. The flight PK 791 was scheduled to take-off from Islamabad to Birmingham. Meanwhile two of PIA flights (PK 300 and PK 742) scheduled to land at Islamabad airport were diverted to Lahore in view of exigency at Islamabad Airport. By 2:00 PM on Thursday, Islamabad Airport was opened for normal air traffic, with all diverted flights returning to Islamabad Airport.
The UK bound passengers of the said aircraft shall now be accommodated on alternate PIA aircraft that is scheduled for departure to Birmingham at 8:00 PM Thursday. PIA management regrets the inconvenience caused to passengers.-PR