LAHORE - A Lahore-bound PIA flight, Pk-710, from Manchester on Thursday had to land at Karachi airport to drop the MD PIA, causing a ten-hour delay to around 300 passengers. Later, the plane landed in Lahore at 4:15pm instead of its scheduled time of 6:10 in the morning, well-placed sources in the national flag carrier disclosed. It is important to note that all the passengers of the Boeing 777 were booked for Lahore. According to the passengers, they were seated as per schedule timings when all of a sudden they were told that the aircraft was delayed because of some 'technical reasons'. However, the plane took off for the assigned destination after a four-hour long wait, as PIA MD Capt Aijaz Haroon accompanied by two other senior executives embarked on the aircraft. But already tired and exhausted passengers were dealt another jolt, when they were told that the plane would land at Karachi instead of Lahore owing to the 'technical reasons'. After the landing at around 1:20pm, the MD and his entourage disembarked while the unfortunate passengers were made to suffer further agony for about two hours. They were shifted to a Boeing 747 and finally arrived in Lahore at 4:15pm. Investigation by this scribe revealed that a cargo door of the aircraft was slightly damaged at Manchester during loading. According to reliable sources in PIA, the fuel was sufficient for the direct flight from Manchester to Lahore, because of direct route and lesser flight time, adding that the fuel required for a Manchester-Karachi flight is slightly more than that for Lahore because of the route. A retired senior marketing officer said in a similar incident involving a Singapore Airline (SIA) flight at a Singapore airport, the flight was called back after closure of doors to accommodate a Commercially Important Passenger (CIP). The traffic supervisor off-loaded the chairman's son, whom he had given protocol, and seated the CIP. Although there were other staff members travelling on non-revenue tickets, the supervisor in order to avoid delay and inconvenience to passengers decided to swap the chairman's son. The agitated son made a lot of hue and cry. However the chairman SIA, when he was briefed on the event, promoted the supervisor. The former marketing executive said, "This is how airlines are run commercially and make profits. PIA has suffered a net additional loss of over Rs52 billion in just over 32 months since the current management has taken over."When contacted, the PIA spokesman said the flight was diverted to Karachi only to cover the further consequential delays of international flights as the said plane was supposed to operate further on an international route. According to his version, whenever there is a chance of international delays, the PIA management always expects from the domestic passengers to sacrifice.