Pakistani Airline Sacrifice Goats For Safer Flights

On Sunday, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) resorted to sacrificing goats to ward off any ‘untoward happening’ in view of looming fear when they cleared planes for flying operations. According to The News, a black goat was slaughtered and offered as sacrifice on behalf of PIA at the Islamabad airport moments before the aircraft which was due for Multan took off for the first time after shakedown tests. The PIA had grounded all of its 10 ATR aircraft after the Civil Aviation Authority ordered shakedown tests of the planes. The directions came after an ATR aircraft reportedly caught fire while on runway of the Multan Airport before taking off Sunday. The PIA airplane PK-581 with 48 passengers onboard was set to take off from Multan to Karachi when it suffered a blaze. The News quoted the PIA Spokesperson Danyal Gilani as saying, “It has been decided to keep all 10 ATR aircraft grounded till they are cleared after thorough examination.”