Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered an official investigation into a controversial social media advert by the country’s flag carrier, which was meant to celebrate a long-awaited resumption of flights to Paris but ended up going viral after it was likened to the 9/11 World Trade Center terror attack.
Ahead of Pakistan International Airlines’ first flight between Islamabad and Paris in nearly five years last week, the carrier shared an image of a plane seemingly flying into the Eiffel Tower against a superimposed ‘blood-stained’ Tricolore and the ominous words “Paris – we’re coming today.”
The resemblance with 9/11 was not lost on many of the airline’s followers on social media, and it didn’t take long for the post to make headlines around the world. Bizarrely, despite the overwhelming backlash to the ill-conceived ad, the airline has refused to remove the post from Facebook or X.
The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden, found refuge in Pakistan for up to six years before he was killed in a U.S. Navy SEAL operation at his compound in Abbottabad, around 120 kilometers north of Islamabad.
Pakistan’s finance minister has now confirmed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered officials to investigate the social media ad. Ishaq Dar described the post as “stupidity” while addressing the country’s parliament.
European air safety regulators lifted a ban on Pakistan International Airlines operating flights to the continent late last year and the airline chose Paris as the first destination in Europe for it to resume flights.
Pakistani airlines were added to Europe’s so-called Air Safety List – a roster of some of the most dangerous airlines in the world – in June 2020 after it emerged that around 40% of PIA’s pilots may have held fake flying licenses.
The revelation was only made public after the May 2020 crash of a PIA plane in Karachi that killed 97 passengers and crew onboard.
The accident occurred when the distracted pilots accidentally raised the landing gears just before the plane was about to land. They only realized their mistake when the belly of the plane started to scrape along the runway for several thousand feet.
The pilots aborted the landing and started to climb, but the damage had already been done. Both engines failed a short time later, and the aircraft eventually fell out of the sky.
Pakistan International Airlines has not addressed the ad or apologized for the offense it has caused.
