Pakistan airline leaves two corpses behind in New York

Two corpses were left behind at a New York airport, instead of being flown to Lahore, said Pakistan’s national airline, apologizing on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Saturday at New York’s JFK airport, as the airline prepared for its final flight from New York to Lahore, via Manchester, with the route having been suspended since due to financial losses.

The body of Pakistani man Nasir Ali was delivered to Lahore on Wednesday on an Etihad Airways flight, while the family of Nauman Badar decided to bury their relative in Maryland instead.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chairman Musharraf Rasool Cyan ordered an inquiry into the incident, a company spokesman told AFP.

The company “regrets the inconvenience caused due to negligence… and expresses its sympathies with the family members of the deceased persons,” a spokesman for the airline said, in a statement.

PIA, once considered a global leader in commercial aviation until the 1970s has been plagued by controversies over recent years, as well as saddled by billions of dollars in debt.

Domestic flights have often been delayed for VIPs while flight employees have been caught smuggling goods such as phones and illegal substances.