As it turned out, the flight got delayed by an hour till 8am as the a/c had some problems with the engine and was still parked at the nightstand being repaired which caused a bit of concern with me as I only had two and a half hours in ISB as it was and had to be back in KHI by 3pm as I had other commitments here. During the extra waiting time I got to see AP-BID up close which was operating as PK300 to ISB and got delayed 15 mins due to a missing pax when they finally figured out it was a crew member who was not flying so they left. I almost kicked myself for not taking PIA this time as I would have gotten a ride on their newest 777. A Shaheen 737 was also pushing back for ISB 5 mins ahead of schedule at 6.55am.
Finally our A321 (this a/c was to go onto MAN from ISB) put in an appearance and 20 mins later boarding commenced. We finally pushed back at 8.30am. The following pics were taken through a very dirty and greasy window and I had no desire to attempt cleaning it much less touching it:
The flight in itself was uneventful, the crew were couteous and served a nice breakfast with a choice of local or western. The captain announced our flight path and arrival time of 10.30am with ISB raining. Upon descent into ISB, the captain decided to take us on an ariel tour of the city with some unusual stunts thrown in which made even myself, an avid flyer, a bit nervous. We approached the runway from the opposite end i.e. Murree Road and came down very low as in about 100 feet above the minarets of a few mosques and as we were less than 50 feet from the ground, he suddenly increased power, put the nose up and swung to the left and raised the landing gear. I caught a very clear glimpse of AP-001 and a PAF 707 both parked one behind the other. As we made this sudden left turn, we flew right over the apron area and directly over AP-BID as I could clearly see the emergency walkways on the wings of the 777. This manouver I found most unusual as I would have expected him to turn right instead of left and do this low flypast over the apron.
We flew ahead for about 10 mins, gained altitude and the flaps were retracted then we made a slow turn back. Again the flaps were extended, gear lowered and we came down and made our approach this time from the normal flightpath that a/c landing at ISB usually use but again we flew right over the runway and towards Murree Road went straight ahead, gears up, gained altitude and then made another slow turn around. Once again, gear down, we came down lower and lower but didn't land, gear up and went up again and this time I pulled out my camera:
By this time I was seriously beginning to wonder what the hell he was doing. If he was unable to land, then he could have diverted to another airport. No announcement was made and we again made a slow turn and came back. During this time I caught sight of a very unusual building somewhere b/w ISB and RWP. It was a huge square flat roofed building with something in big yellow letters on the side and a big line of American style lorries parked outside. It looked like something of the nature of Sams Club or some other large wholesale outlet, or it could have been a warehouse but the structure and whole appearance made it look like it was a foreign concern.
Anyway, we now made our fourth attempt at landing and finally he pulled it off. It was a smooth landing and we immediately turned right towards the apron area where I took the following pics:
We disembarked in pouring rain and ran towards the bus. As the ASF thought it better to remain dry, I found the chance to take more pics from the open doors of the bus as did many other pax:
As we were bussed towards the terminal and got off, I took these:
After collecting my baggage and coming out, it was all but impossible for me to go to ISB, do my work and make it back in time for the 1pm flight so I went to the ED office there at the airport and got myself on the 6.30pm flight with no charges as they said the delay was their fault. I told my friend what happened and he said that the flight info told him that we were delayed because there were 4 flights landing at the same time. As you can see in the pics taken from the air and on the ground, the a/c are all the same in number. Nothing arrived and nothing departed. I was surprised to see the BA 777 (G-YMMA) still sitting there as it should have left hours ago.
I had to then reschedule my programme due to my delayed departure from ISB and was hoping would be on time but as luck would have it, that too was delayed by an hour to 7.30pm due to its late arrival from KHI. I managed to take these pics from the departure lounge. The smoking room was being renovated so I could not get any good pics from its usually open window:
Our A321 (BJB) arrived and boarding commenced at 7pm. This time they got everyone onto the bus, shoved onto the plane and in their seats with such speed that we pushed back at 7.20pm. We took off again from the opposite end of the runway and despite the flight being full, it was quite a short takeoff roll. The inflight entertainment was inoperative so everyone had to make do with reading material. Dinner was served and the flight landed very smoothly at KHI by 9.15pm. We taxied to the international satellite and having gotten a seat at the very rear of the a/c, had to wait 15 mins before I got off the a/c via stairs. There was only 1 coach available with a max capacity for around 30 people, so it had to make several trips to and from the domestic to the intl terminal to pick up the pax. An EY A332 landed right after us and we docked next to an EK A332. There was also a MAS A333 and Shaheen 737. Not wanting to draw attention by using the flash on my camera, I took this lousy pic of the EK A332 parked next to us:
In all it was a very hectic not to mention delayed trip. Those unusual landing attempts at ISB I cannot explain so everyone will have to draw their own conclusions.
