Charter plane with `12 passengers' takes off from Hyd's RGIA, lands in Pakistan's Karachi; probe ordered

Hyderabad: A charter plane reportedly carrying 12 passengers took off from Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) and landed at Karachi airport on August 15- Monday, according to reports. Nine males and three females were on board GL-5t. It landed at Pakistan's Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on August 15, Pakistan media reported. However, Hyderabad airport authorities confirm that there were only 3 crew members on board against the 12 mentioned by Pakistan media houses. But, the information about the flight from Hyderabad to Karachi is accurate, they told NewsMeter.

Alarmed by the incident, the Pakistan Government has begun inquiry, reports said. Documents accessed by NewsMeter reveal that GL-5 took off from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport-Hyderabad and landed at Karachi airport at 12:10 pm

Pakistan media is naming the 12 passengers who supposedly were on board the plane. NewsMeter, however, has not been able to independently verify it list of passengers. According to Pakistani reports, the owner operator of the flight is Fly Sky.

What GMR officials said?

A GMR official on condition of anonymity, told NewsMeter that the chartered flight from Dubai had only 3 people (primarily three crew members) on board. "There were no passengers as such against the reports of 12 passengers on board. This is the official communication that was given to the airport authorities in Hyderabad by the operators of the chartered flight. The information about 12 passengers is false,"said the officer pleading anonymity. GMR has also issued an official statement about the incident.

The officer added, said the charter flight from Dubai was turned into a ferry flight ( in aviation terminologies a ferry flight is one that does not carry passengers but crew members).