However, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and PIA officials denied the occurrence of any fire incident, insisting that no fire incident or sparking occurred on the plane.
According to media reports, PK-308''s passengers included Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, PPP lawmakers Mola Buksh Chandio and Yousuf Talpur, PML-N''s MNA Shirin Arshad and other government dignitaries.
"There was neither any fire nor sparking in the PIA flight PK 308 (Karachi-Islamabad)," spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority Pervez George said".
He said that that according to schedule, PK 308''s departure time was 4pm. However, the flight was delayed for an hour because of some technical reasons. He did not specify.
At the time of the plane''s departure, one of its engines did not start. Subsequently, the flight was stopped and passengers disembarked, the CAA spokesperson said. He said that the flight left for Islamabad after some time.
The CAA spokesperson emphatically said that neither there was any fire incident nor had any sparking occurred on the plane.
Terming media reports "totally baseless", PIA''s spokesperson said that the facts are: PK-308 was being operated on Boeing 747, which has four engines. At the time of departure three of its engine started normally while the fourth one did not start because of a faulty starter. He said that the engine did not start even aircraft''s captain called in engineers. When it did not start, the aircraft was parked and passengers were disembarked. The starter of the engine was changed and the same aircraft with 402 passengers took off from Karachi and safely landed in Islamabad at 9:30pm.
President of CAA''s Safety Investigation Board Air Cdr Basit was at the airport and he confirmed that there was no fire after checking the aircraft.
The airline''s spokesman said that the news reports were aired repeatedly without any verification, adding that blowing news out of proportion seriously damaged the image of the national flag carrier, which is a strategic national asset.
PIA spokesman explained that after rectification of the snag the aircraft was cleared by engineering and the same aircraft departed for Islamabad with the same engines within two hours and twenty minutes, including embarkation and disembarkation of more than 400 passengers. If there had been a fire or some major fault, the engine would have been removed and a new engine installed. Hence, it would have taken several hours or a day for the same aircraft to depart for any flight. Therefore, reports of a fire "are unfounded and untrue".
"A ramp return is a routine for all airlines of the world and we at PIA encourage our crew to remove all doubts before every flight for the safety of passengers. It is better to be safe on ground than exposing ourselves to any abnormality or emergency in the air." MD PIA Muhammad Junaid Yunus reiterated that safety of "our passengers are of paramount importance" and said that a flight "is not dispatched unless PIA is 100 percent sure of the safety of passengers".
Unqualified and unfounded statements not only financially damaged the national carrier, its brand, and also the morale of its hardworking 18,000 employees.
"To make such a big issue of a minor technical fault is uncalled for and only serves to erode the trust of our valuable passengers that its employees are endeavouring to build the national carrier''s image," the MD PIA asserted.