PIA pilot makes purser fly back to Pakistan for not placing preferred air hostess inside cockpit

A Pakistan International Airlines' (PIA) pilot made a purser fly back to Islamabad from Birmingham after the latter rejected her request to station a specific air hostess inside the cockpit.

Captain pilot Riffat Hey of PK791 flight refused to acknowledge the purser Ghulam Mustafa as aircraft manager and made him fly back as a passenger on a separate plane, the Express Tribune reports.

Mustafa informed PIA management about the incident after he was arrested by the immigration officials at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) for travelling without a visa.

Earlier in March, Hey had alleged before the Supreme Court that harassment and subsequent victimisation was rampant in PIA and she was not the only staff member who had faced such problems.

Hey had also claimed that she was being targeted, after she complained about the attitude of two male pilots.