UK customs, immigration officials check two PIA flights

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KARACHI: Passengers of two PIA flights were not allowed to leave the plane for an hour by UK customs and immigration officials.
The officials checked the documents and belongings of hundreds of passengers one-by-one on the flights from Karachi and Islamabad, causing one of the return flights to miss its scheduled departure time.
A PIA spokesperson said that snap-checking was a routine exercise carried out by UK customs authorities on many international airlines.
“They do this every month or two on a host of flights of various airlines. The last time it was carried out, the flight was delayed by more than an hour,” said Rana Muhammad Hanif, a PIA spokesman.
“It’s primarily done to check (illegal flow of) currency.” However, he insisted that there was no delay in return flights.
The spokesperson of the Aviation Division Sher Ali also insisted that the check was random and a “matter of routine.”