Some chaos was witnessed on PIA’s Melbourne flight (PK-8972) that was carrying the passengers stuck in Australia back to Pakistan on Sunday, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The passengers’ joy was turned into justified resentment as they saw the national carrier’s utter disregard for the Civil Aviation Authority’s SOPs regarding the coronavirus. Instead of arranging a vacant seat between the two passengers, PIA made them sit in a usual manner, stirring a hue and cry in the air for not keep the social distance.

The complaining passengers said that PIA would be responsible if they contracted the COVID-19, said the TV channel. The passengers said policy of social distancing was not observed and despite of purchasing tickets worth $3,000 each, the seat next to the passengers was not left vacant.

The TV channel also run a video in which passengers can be seen arguing with the crew members about the absence of social distancing.

The PIA flight took off from Australian city of Melbourne for Lahore earlier Sunday, repatriating 250 Pakistanis stranded there.

According to the Pakistan High Commission in Australia, the PIA plane took off from Melbourne Airport at 1.00 pm local time.

On this occasion, the Pakistani passengers praised Pakistan government and the PIA for their repatriation efforts.

The Pakistani High Commissioner and the Consul General saw off the Pakistani passengers at the airport.

The PIA plane departed for Australia from Islamabad on Friday last to bring back the stranded Pakistanis. A PIA spokesperson then said that a special flight, PK-8963, had departed for Melbourne for the first time in the history with more than 300 passengers on board including Australian nationals.