Missing Pakistani flight attendant was arrested in Toronto

The latest in a string of “disappearing” flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines did not simply walk away and vanish during a Toronto layover but was arrested for carrying multiple passports, several news agencies are reporting.

According to the Pakistan news channel ARY News, a female flight attendant arrived in Toronto March 28 on flight PK789 from Lahore. The outlet reported that she was then arrested by Canadian immigration authorities after they found several passports belonging to different people in her luggage.

According to The Express Tribune, an English-language newspaper based in Pakistan, the flight attendant had been warned about bringing prohibited items to Canada. An airlines spokesperson told the newspaper that the airline was aware of the incident and in contact with Canadian authorities.

Sources also told The Express Tribune that two other attendants on the same flight were questioned by authorities before being allowed to leave for the hotel where they stayed before flying back to Pakistan the next day.

The arrest caps a string of incidents in which PIA flight attendants have disappeared during Toronto layovers, presumably seeking asylum in Canada, according to a PIA spokesperson who spoke to CTV News.

Just a month ago, a PIA crew member left her uniform and a brief thank-you note to her employer in a Toronto hotel room before disappearing. It’s at least the second time this year such an incident has happened, and the tenth time in the last two years.

The disappearances are something of an embarrassing trend for the airline, which has seen financial and credibility losses in recent years, and a deadly crash in 2020. Other disappearances go back to at least 2018.

Last year, PIA announced it was implementing stricter measures to keep track of its employees on flights to Canada and Europe. It set an age limit for flight attendants on those routes, requiring them to be 50 or older.