Aviation

U.S. based Aerion announced its first customer, Pakistan-based Princely Jets, after opening its order book at the Dubai Airshow. The futuristic supersonic business jet appears to be gaining altitude, with its US manufacturer saying it has letters of intent worth $US1.5 billion from customers interested in its $US80 million plane. The supersonic jet, capable of [...]

Saba Khan, Nadia Gul, Mariam Khalil and Saira Batool were among 36 aviation cadets who received their wings after 3 1/2 years of intensive training, breaking into an all-male bastion of Pakistan’s armed forces. The four women are the first female pilots in the 58-year-history of the Pakistan air force. They trained in MFI-17 Super [...]

Flight PK-623 created a unique aviation record for the national air carrier as both the pilot and co-pilot were women. In the past, flights have either had a male pilot or co-pilot. The passengers aboard the plane did not know about all-female crew flight until it had made a landing. It was a surprise for [...]

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has created world commercial aviation history by flying newly-manufactured Boeing 777 LR (Long Range) — the first airline in the world to fly it from Hong Kong to Heathrow — the wrong way around the globe. Along with five Boeing pilots, Commander Asif Reza, senior vice president flight operations PIA, was [...]

Ayesha Rabia Naveed has become the first woman captain of a commercial aeroplane in Pakistan. Ms Ayesha Rabia Naveed has become the first woman captain of a commercial plane after flying a PIA aeroplane on Oct 21. Ms Ayesha has been with the PIA for more than 15 years. During her career, she has flown [...]

These men are the helicopter pilots of Pakistan’s armed forces – perhaps the only group of people in the sordid drama that have delivered more than was ever expected of them. While those in cities and towns – helped mostly by road transport – have perhaps not even noticed their presence beyond the deafening hum [...]

PIA took off at 10:00 am and soon entered the land of mega mountains where high peaks including the world’s second highest peak K2, lakes, meadows, valleys and glaciers … The sky was clear and snow-capped peaks were glittering in the August sun. Five of the world’s 14 tallest mountains (over 8000 meters) are situated [...]

The Pakistani army plucked a stranded climber from an icy ledge on one of the world’s most treacherous mountains in a daring high-altitude rescue yesterday. Two Lama helicopters hovered at almost 6,700 metres (21,980 ft) over Nanga Parbat, a Himalayan peak known as “killer mountain”, to rescue Tomaz Humar, a 36-year-old Slovene alpinist. Photographs posted [...]

Pakistan’s new private airline ‘Airblue‘ will start its UAE operations on August 14, when the first flight from Dubai will take off. Initially, the airline will be operating seven daily flights on the Dubai-Karachi sector. “For the first time in Pakistan, we introduced the latest and innovative web-based eTechnology offering eTickets and mobile check-ins. We [...]

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) academy has been all-male for more than 55 years – but now it is going through major change. Women are now allowed to enrol on its aerospace engineering and fighter pilot programmes and are doing rather well. Male cadets are having to come to terms with the fact that masculinity [...]