Pakistan Airlines Flight Attendant Goes “Missing” In Toronto, A Common Problem

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight attendant has “disappeared” in Canada, and unfortunately this isn’t the first time (or even tenth time) that something like this has happened…

PIA flight attendant goes missing during layover

A PIA flight attendant has gone missing during a layover in Toronto. Specifically, on November 16, 2025, a flight attendant operated flight PK789 from Lahore (LHE) to Toronto (YYZ). The flight attendant was scheduled to operate the return flight, PK798, three days later, on November 19, 2025, but didn’t show up. At that point he was reported as missing.

The company did manage to get in touch with him, and he cited ill health as the reason for his absence. However, he refused to make further contact, and chose not to return to Pakistan.

The airline claims that it’s now investigating the incident, and claims that “departmental action will be initiated against the flight steward in case of illegal disappearance.” Yeah, I’m not sure that’ll be terribly successful.

This is a pretty common occurrence at PIA

This isn’t the first time that this has happened at Pakistan International Airlines. As a matter of fact, this seems to happen several times per year, for around a decade now.

It’s likely that the number of flight attendants who “disappear” in Canada is connected to the country’s liberal asylum policies. Many crew have used their layovers in Canada as an opportunity to abscond, citing economic pressures in Pakistan as the motivator.

Several years back, PIA had claimed it would change protocols to avoid these issues going forward. Specifically, the airline pledged to hold onto crew passports during layovers, and require hotel security to make sure crews check-in, stay the night, etc.

However, it doesn’t appear that a whole lot has been done on that front. For that matter, I’m not even sure it would accomplish a lot — if someone wants to escape and is happy to ditch their passport, then there’s nothing the airline can do.

At least in each of these cases, this was done during a layover, and didn’t impact any other people at the airline directly. Contrast that to the 2014 incident, where an Ethiopian Airlines pilot hijacked his own plane in order to seek asylum in Switzerland.