By: Pakistantoday.com

An Emirates passenger airline with 82 people on board bound for Dubai was pulled off the runway minutes before it was supposed to take off after the pilot detected smoke in the cockpit. Just as flight EK 609 was due to depart on Saturday evening, the pilot called for emergency assistance soon after he had started backing off the Airbus 320. It had earlier been reported that the plane had taken off and had to turn around for an emergency landing, however, officials denied this was the case and that the plane had not taken off. “All the passengers and crew members were evacuated and the plane has been parked on one side. No one was hurt,” said Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson Pervez George. The plane deployed chutes to evacuate passengers.