The Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan has strongly rebutted the claims made in a video on social media about flooding at the new Islamabad Airport. The authority that is mostly late to refute such claims only decided to do so once the Chief Justice of Pakistan took notice of it. A statement issued by the CAA said “a reference to the video clips made viral on social media spreading misconceptions on the effects of heavy dust storm and rainfall on 5th June 2018 presenting rainwater flooding the Passenger Terminal Building, no major water leakages have been observed or reported at Islamabad International Airport and operations remained completely normal.”
This statement was issued to clam the propaganda spread by Pakistani media followers of opposition parties in the previous parliament. And as expected the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who keeps a close eye on tv channels and Whatsapp especially when it comes to fake news, took “Suo Motu” of some video clips that went viral on social media and some TV channels decided to run those videos without verification.
There were more than one videos including some old and fake videos that were from other airports in the world. “One video made viral is of concourse area at arrival departure point. Where due to an abnormal thunderstorm, and the direction of rain meant that the rain showers entered in the non-conditioned meet and greet area”. The affected area was “swiftly cleaned by the CAA airport management” but someone who made the video decided to manipulate the situation and uploaded the video. It is important to mention according to CAA that “no damage to property and disruptions in airport operations occurred”.
CAA statement further said that “in another video made viral on social media by an airline employee where depicts rainwater flooding into the basement floor of an under-construction building that is situated almost 700m away from the terminal building with NO operational significance. The drainage process was immediately started by the contractor and further instructed by CAA management to take preventive measures for upcoming monsoon season to avoid any unpleasant situation. It is again important to mention that this specific building is not airport terminal and is currently under construction.
CAA also pointed out that some sections of media have also shown old clips of rainwater accumulated on runways from other airports which is unreasonable and out of context. But it seems when it comes to political point scoring everything is right and justified.
According to the CAA statement, the Airport Manager Islamabad International Airport presented CAA version to the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan. The Honourable Chief Justice praised CAA work and directed CAA management to continue the good work.
Pakistan Aviation visited the sites independently and verifies that these videos are not genuine and where the water is shown is not an area within the airport terminal.