NEW YORK: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has once again made headlines in the international media for all the wrong reasons when it left two coffins behind in the US which were to be repatriated to Lahore.
According to BBC, the national carrier has ordered an inquiry, after two sets of human remains it was repatriating were left behind in New York.
The two coffins were meant to be flown to Lahore on 28 October - but were left at JFK Airport by mistake, the report added.
It was PIA's last New York-Lahore flight, as it had just suspended the route - so Etihad Airlines had to step in and do the job instead.
PIA blamed the ground handling agency for the blunder.
PIA said it "regrets the inconvenience caused due to negligence on part of the airline's ground handling agency... and expresses its sympathies with the family members of the deceased persons".
One of the families had now asked for their relative be buried in Maryland, while the other body was being transferred by Etihad Airways back to Lahore, PIA's statement added.
PIA said it would look after the transfer arrangements, adding that "all expenses will be borne by PIA".
The US operations have been suspended by the airline due to low traffic. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, talking to reporters in London on earlier this week, had said that the decision should have been taken three years ago.
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