Coming less than a week after the carrier relaunched international air services to Europe, the safety spotlight has quickly fallen once again in the direction of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The airline is being investigated after one of its flights landed on a closed runway in Lahore whose lights were switched off at the time of the landing attempt. Although the aircraft landed without further incident, questions are already being asked as to just how a severe breach of safety and operating protocols at the company could occur allowing such a significant mistake to be made.

The flight involved was PIA flight PK150 operating from Dammam Airport (DMM) in Saudi Arabia to Multan Airport (MUX) in Pakistan on January 17, 2025. The flight, which operates weekly, had been forced to divert from its intended destination due to adverse weather conditions, which included thick fog, in Multan. The flight was being operated by one of the carrier’s 17-strong fleet of Airbus A320-200 aircraft registered as AP-BON.

The flight departed Dammam at 02:30 local time for the three-hour flight to Multan. However, as the flight progressed and having been advised of the poor weather conditions in Multan, the crew elected to continue to Lahore where the conditions were better. Approaching Lahore Airport from the south, the flight was cleared to land on runway 36R at the airport. However, the aircraft landed on the airport’s parallel runway (36L) at 07:34 local time. While the active runway (36R) had its approach and edge lights fully illuminated at the time of the landing, it is understood that those for 36L were fully extinguished.   

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