New Delhi: A Pakistan International Airlines flight to Saudi Arabia allegedly allowed seven extra passengers who travelled standing on the aisle.
The incident occurred on January 20 on flight from Karachi to Medina.
PIA spokesman Danyal Gilani told the BBC that the airline is investigating how it was allowed to happen. The passengers were allowed on the flight despite every seat being filled, he said.
It came to light after being reported by Pakistan's Dawn newspaper. Staff had issued additional handwritten boarding passes, the paper reported.
This would have caused problems because in an emergency evacuation and passengers would not have had access to oxygen if it was suddenly required, aviation experts said told the BBC.
This is the first time the airline boarded excess passengers on a flight.
Dawn accuses Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority of "not taken punitive action against the airline or its staffers for putting the passengers' lives at risk".
"I... noticed [that] some people were those who were categorically refused jump [staff] seats by me at the check-in counter before the flight", he was quoted by Dawn as saying.
"I had already taken off and the senior purser did not inform me about extra passengers before closing the aircraft door.
"Therefore after take-off [any] immediate landing back at Karachi was not possible as it required a lot of fuel dumping which was not in the interest of the airline."
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