Here’s a fun story of a Pakistani politician that delayed a flight from Karachi to Islamabad by over two hours. The claim was that the plane had a technical fault, but once the passengers realized the plane was being held for a politician, they got angry and more or less refused to let him board.
Via NDTV:
A mobile video clip showing Pakistani politician Rehman Malik being virtually chased away by airline passengers furious at being forced to wait over two hours for him has gone viral.
The incident took place on Monday when PIA’s flight PK 370 was waiting to take off from Karachi. After what seemed to be an interminable wait inside the aircraft for a “technical fault” a passenger was finally able to draw out the truth – the crew was expecting Rehman Malik of the Pakistan People’s Party, a former Interior Minister.
A group of passengers then positioned themselves at the entrance, determined not to allow Mr Malik in the flight. “Tell him to catch a bus,” sneered one passenger. “Is he god?” said another.
“Malik Saab, you should be ashamed of yourself. You should apologise. You kept 250 passengers waiting,” a passenger shouted, rushing forward when the politician approached the plane.
“We have taken it for 68 years. No more!” he said.
Here’s the video of the incident:
Fun stuff!
(Tip of the hat to Stargold UA)
A year ago Middle East Airline (Air Lebanon) left on tome from Beirut to Bagdad refusing to wait for the son of an Iraqi minister,it received a call from Bagdad during the flight that it wont be allowed to land in Bagdad without the son ministet,the flight returned to Beirut and been canceled,this is the way crook politicians in kiddle east operates,thinking they ate above the law.
@Tim - I doubt this would happen in the US, if for no other reason than the fact that any politician with enough clout to get an airline to hold a plane like this is probably already flying an Air Force VIP jet, and wouldn't have this problem.
lol...this s funny....he is one of the worst interior ministers we ever had in Pakistan and is also one of the most ridiculed politician here
Love this video. Did this flight actually take off after the politician left? I imagine if this happened in the US the flight would be cancelled because of all the rowdy passengers.
Yeah, it is *ALWAYS* a good idea to piss off the people who can regulate your company out of business.
Especially when it is the STATE-OWNED carrier.
Shameful! This needs to stop if these airlines want to be taken seriously.
It's too bad we don't do this stuff to Politicians herein the US. Our Pols deserve MUCH WORSE.
This was GREAT to see. Eff that guy...does he really think he's someone special??
This will be the problem with using F award space on Air India. If you think Air China employees canceling UA awards and selling upgrades is bad, wait until you see the shenanigans the Indian politicians are capable of.
I don't see why he should have special privileges just because hes a politician. If hes so great he should have his own private plane.
If this was anyone else, they would have shut the door and just said "sorry you were late".