Pakistan International Airlines has filed a complaint with the Canada Border Services Agency that one of their flight attendants has gone missing.
A flight that flew from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad to Toronto last Friday, October 14th had Ijaz Shah among the crew members.
Ijaz was aboard flight PK 781 which landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport at 4 p.m. local time. However, he disappeared shortly after appearing at the immigration counter at the Toronto airport.
Dawn newspaper has reported that this is the third incident of a flight crew disappearing after landing in Toronto.
He was declared ‘missing’ after he failed to report for the flight on Sunday.
Abdullah H. Khan, PIA general manager of corporate communications told the media, “One of our crew Mr Ijaz Shah who operated as operating crew on PK781 of 14Oct went missing after the flight.”
“Both the flight purser and our station manager [in] Toronto kept on calling his given numbers for two days but no response.”
The PIA flight from Islamabad landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Friday at 4 p.m. He was officially declared missing after he didn’t show up to the return flight he was scheduled to board on Sunday, Khan said.
However local Police officer says, “Shah had not been reported missing.”
As per local media reports, this is not the first time a PIA crew member has disappeared in Canada. Earlier in January, a flight steward on another PIA flight from Islamabad went missing soon after landing in Toronto.
On another occasion, an air hostess of Pakistan’s national carrier also disappeared after reaching Canada this year.
Khan said PIA has developed a procedure to control these incidences, including surety bonds obtained from the crew sent to Toronto.
“Additionally thorough investigations are also conducted to ascertain the facts and if found guilty, they are terminated from the service,” he said.
According to Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, foreign national is exempt from the requirement to obtain a temporary resident visa if they are seeking to enter and remain in Canada solely as a member of a flight crew.
