A flight from Pakistan that made an unscheduled stop in Bahrain was dropping off spare parts for another plane, which earlier had to abort takeoff at Bahrain International Airport due to a technical failure, a report said.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK290 was scheduled to take off from Bahrain to Lahore on Wednesday, but the takeoff was cancelled, reported the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

"The flight taxied out, when it reached the point of departure it turned around because it needed spare parts," a Bahrain Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA) official said yesterday.

"The passengers were taken off the plane until it was repaired. There was co-operation between authorities in Bahrain and Pakistan to try to get the spare parts for the plane. To get the spare parts to Bahrain PIA sent another plane, PK731, which landed in Bahrain to drop off spare parts and then continued to Jeddah."

A passenger carrying a gun and ammunition was detained before embarking on a flight from Pakistan, but the CAA official said he was not booked onto the PIA plane that stopped in Bahrain as initially reported.

"The CAA contacted Pakistan authorities who confirmed that the flight that the man with a gun was trying to get on was not a PIA plane and did not land in Bahrain," he said. "There was no security issue with the PIA plane that did land in Bahrain."

Passengers on the grounded plane had to wait 12 hours before alternative transport was arranged for them.

GDN attempts to contact the PIA office and country manager on Thursday were unsuccessful. – TradeArabia News Service