KARACHI: The management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Tuesday terminated services of five crew members on flight PK-788 from London to Karachi for violating rules and regulations.

A day earlier it had been reported that United Kingdom’s customs authority detained five PIA crew members from the same flight — PK-788 — on charges of smuggling and money laundering.

At that time a PIA spokesperson had said that UK’s border security force had stopped the crew for questioning, adding that they had not been detained. The spokesperson said five crew members were questioned more than others but later returned to Karachi on their flight.

The spokesperson had also dismissed reports of currency and cellphones being recovered from the crew.

While Tuesday’s press release does not specify the violations conducted by the crew, it said PIA had taken stern action on violation of rules and regulations by five cabin crew members during departure of the London-Karachi flight on June 7.

The services of all five cabin crew have been terminated forthwith, the news release said, adding that the crew brought a bad name to the national carrier.

In August last year, customs authorities in Rawalpindi had arrested a PIA crew member after they recovered 37 smart phones, three tablets and 5,000 British pounds from him.

The assistant collector customs said that they had intelligence that a flight crew member would smuggle a large quantity of mobile phones into the country from UK.