Rumours circulating on social media that the entire crew of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight disappeared and sought asylum in Canada after landing in Toronto are unfounded, authorities and the airline say.
Posts on X, Instagram and Facebook claimed the crew surrendered to Canadian officials at Toronto Pearson International Airport, forcing the airline to suspend direct flights between Canada and Pakistan. One widely shared post alleged the crew, including pilots, failed to return to Islamabad after a scheduled stopover.
The Canada Border Services Agency said it could not corroborate the claims.
“There is no evidence the airline crew left their plane to apply for asylum in Canada,” a CBSA spokesperson said in an email.
Flight data also contradicts the rumours. Toronto Pearson confirms PIA operates one weekly direct flight between Toronto and Islamabad, and the airport’s website shows a scheduled arrival from Islamabad at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The tracking site FlightAware lists direct flights between the two cities on both Thursday and Friday.
Pakistan International Airlines has also denied the reports, calling them “fake.”
“A tweet… claiming that whole crew of a particular #PIA flight is missing, is entirely baseless,” the airline said in a post on X. “The purpose seems to malign PIA and Pakistan.”
While the latest claims are false, the airline has previously acknowledged that individual crew members have gone missing in Canada. In 2024, PIA said about eight flight attendants had disappeared in Toronto over an 18-month period and were believed to have sought asylum. One left a thank-you note in her hotel room before vanishing.
More recently, in November, the airline said it was investigating after a flight attendant failed to board a return flight from Toronto to Lahore, citing ill health.
PIA has said it now assigns Toronto flights to crew members with strong ties to Pakistan and avoids sending single staff or those without established family connections. An immigration lawyer told CTV News in 2024 that two attendants he represented sought asylum over claims of gender and religious persecution and domestic violence.
Despite past individual cases, officials say there is no evidence to support claims that an entire PIA crew disappeared in Toronto this week.