Another case of disappearance of a Pakistan International Airline (PIA) crew member has come to light.

Interestingly she also left a note with a smiley saying. “Thank you, PIA”. Along with the note she also left her uniform in the hotel room.
The matter came to light when she did not turn up for her return flight to Karachi. Several attempts were made to contact her but all failed, later on her room was checked by the PIA officers and the hotel staff, which led the to the thanking note and her uniform.
The matter has been reported to the police and Canadian Immigration Authorities.
This is not the first time such a case of disappearance of a PIA crew member has come light. This is the second PIA crew member to have disappeared this year.
Earlier this year in the month on January 19, 2024, Pakistan Airlines International (PIA) flight PK781
departed Islamabad International Airport (ISB) at 16:21, bound for Toronto, Canada. The flight was operated with a 2005 Boeing 777-
200LR, the PIA flight attendant Faiza Mukhtar who was a crew member on the returning Toront-
Karachi flight, had disappeared in a similar fashion. She was to report for the return flight to Karachi but she simply vanished.
This is becoming a trend at PIA, as in 2023, at least seven of the PIA flight attendants disappeared after landing in Canada.
An officer of the PIA confirmed that in late December, Syed Ali Abbas and Farkhanda
Shaheen, two cabin crew on a PIA flight from Lahore Allama International Airport (LHE) that arrived in Toronto, also failed to report for their
next flight. Later on it came to light that they have disappeared.
Last year in the month of November 2 flight attendants disappeared after landing at Toronto from Islamabad on flight number PK772. They were identified as Khalid and Fida. Similar cases involved crew named Muntazir in July, and Ijaz and Ramzan, both in October 2022.  In
total there have been more than 10 such disappearances. this started in 2018 and has been continuing unceasingly.
This problem was first reported in 2019 when Shazia Saeed arrived in Paris on
PK734 and vanished from the crew’s hotel.

The reason behind this continuous disappearance of PIA crew is believed to be the liberal policies of the Canadian government in regards to the asylum seekers . The dwindling financial condition of PIA. Its impending privatisation. The downward economic trend of their own country, which does not guarantee employment and financial stability. Some also believe that the previous cases of the flight crew disappearing and they going scot free, without any legal repercussions and departmental enquiries, has given an impetus to other crew members for adopting this method for easy immigration to Canada.They seem to be getting encouragement from such previous cases where the crew has been successfully accepted as an asylum seeker.

Pakistan International Airline has seen its share of troubles. In August 2023, it was reportedly unable to pay its employees, and also had to ground several aircraft and cut some routes due to unpaid bills. This was in the same month that employees announced a two-hour “token strike” over plans to privatize the airline, as well as a lack of salary increases.

The PIA doesn’t seem to be taking this problem seriously. One officer of the airline said that the airline has increased the age of the crew flying in this sector to atleast being 50. He added that such disappearances are common among flight crews from developing countries. He said a special investigative unit has been set and legal action is being planned for crew who donot observe the professional codes of conduct. Whether such measures put an end to this menace needs to be seen