The news that a PIA plane en route to Karachi was forced to land in Sweden on Saturday because of a bomb threat should be troubling for PIA and the airline industry in general.

Flight PK782 from Toronto was diverted to Arlanda Airport near Stockholm after Canadian authorities received a tip that a passenger was carrying explosives. All passengers were evacuated, all luggage re-screened and the flight was grounded for nine hours before taking off again. No explosives were found and the suspect was released after extensive questioning (reportedly, he didn’t resist when a SWAT team took him into custody and cooperated with investigators).

For PIA, it is horrible news. It is not the first time the airline is being linked with bomb threats, as if the airline has become the terrorist’s airline of choice.

Last year, PIA planes in Toronto were singled out for secret searches due to a bizarre bomb plot. In 2007, the airline had other problems. The European Union barred most of PIA’s aircraft from flying to the multi-nation bloc because of safety concerns. It was a bad blow to PIA’s reputation and revenues.

The most recent event in Sweden has raised issues that are troubling for the whole industry as there is speculation that the anonymous phone tip-off fingering Majid Maher, a 28-year-old Canadian citizen who was travelling alone, could have been a hoax. News reports surfaced on Sunday and Monday claiming that it was possible that Mr Maher was set up by a jealous ex-girlfriend. The Swedish Wire and AFP report:

“From what I understood, an ex came forward with the claim in connection with their separation. It was surely not a happy one,” Stockholm police officer HÃ¥kan Westing, who could not be reached for comment Monday, told [Swedish tabloid] Aftonbladet. “She had an evil eye on him,” he said, adding that according to the cleared suspect’s written statement he was going to get married in Pakistan.

Stockholm police spokesman Kjell Lindgren told AFP Monday the man was travelling to Pakistan “for personal reasons,” but could not confirm he was going to get married or that an angry ex had tipped off Canadian authorities.

“It’s a theory,” was all he would say.

Sgt. Marc LaPorte, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said an anonymous caller called twice saying a man on the flight had explosives. The RCMP officer also said there was potentially a criminal offence involved with the tip-off as, on the surface, it did seem like someone had a motive to accuse Mr Maher of wrongdoings. “If the Swedish authorities are saying that they released him and there is no investigation on their end, we will obviously pursue this as a hoax,” LaPorte said. Potential charges include a terrorism hoax charge as well as one for public mischief.

There have been other episodes of false alarms in recent years, including a warning that forced a public shopping area in Amsterdam to close for a day and suspicious gifts being hand-carried onto a plane that caused two Yemeni men to be jailed in Europe for about 48 hours.

Chris Mathers, a Toronto-based crime consultant, spoke to the Toronto Star and said that “some people within the South Asian community who have been involved in personal or business disputes have made false calls to police over the past couple of years.” In some instances, people have called police and accused those they have vendettas against as being jihadis or terrorists, he said. “If they (officials) start to get 50 calls a day for bombs on airplanes, they can’t make every airplane land,” Mathers was quoted as saying.

An AP report quoted a European-based expert who spoke of the balancing act that authorities around the world are struggling to perform:

“It’s disturbing the way these kinds of situations can disrupt day-to-day lives,” said Bibi van Ginkel, a fellow at the International Center on Counter-Terrorism in The Hague.

Authorities are unlikely to let down their guard any time soon, she said, because “they know that these kinds of little tips could easily be a real threat.” But she added that protocols are constantly being reviewed to weed out cranks and hoaxers.

That PIA is caught in the middle of many of these terrorist threats is not good for the financially troubled state-run company. It is not just the costly delays that the airline and passengers have to deal with. And it goes beyond the personal trauma for travellers of being held up for nine hours, insinuatingly searched and having SWAT teams enter your plane. Earlier in 2010, a Pakistani diplomat in Toronto said PIA passengers were definitely being singled out in Toronto: “Baggage is turned upside down,” he said. Moreover, if an airline is deemed to be trouble (read: high risk), governments may seriously consider banning it altogether. Stranger things have happened.

Then again, having lots of Muslims and Pakistanis on one airline provides the type of segregation that many people in this increasingly intolerant world believe in.

Watch an Al-Jazeera report of an analysis of the incident while the plane was still grounded in Sweden.