If your airline's idea of safety is sacrificing a black goat on the runway, you may have a problem. But sacrificing black goats on runways is Pakistan International Airline's idea of safety.
Pakistan's national airline has been mocked after a goat was sacrificed to ward off bad luck following one of the country's worst air disasters.
Pictures went viral showing PIA ground staff slaughtering a black goat next to an ATR-42 aircraft which was about to leave for a domestic flight.
It was the first such flight since PIA grounded its ATR fleet for tests after a 7 December crash killed 47 people.
In Pakistan killing a black goat is supposed by many to ward off evil.
Sure they could maintain the planes better. But this is a more sensible solution...
According to Pakististani daily The Express Tribune, staff are terrified of flying in the ATR planes.
“Ever since the flight PK-661 crashed, the staff sits fingers crossed whenever a flight takes off,” one source told the paper.
Apparently it's almost standard procedure.
Aviation sources say animal sacrifice ahead of a flight is not something new. They say the staff of two private airlines had also slaughtered goats before resuming flights following two deadly air crashes in 2010 and 2012.
“But this one was done in a reckless manner. When you slaughter an animal in the middle of a major airport next to an aircraft, it is bound to attract attention,” said an office-bearer of the Pakistan International Airlines Pilots Association (PALPA).