On Friday 14 January, 2022, the Lebanese Asas Media website carried a report by Imad Chidiac under the headline: “The Airport on the brink of disaster: Bullets, dollars, and mayhem.” The article was quickly circulated by multiple Lebanese websites, including Sawt Beirut, Janoubia, and others.
The author tackled a number of stories from inside the airport, such as the electricity cuts, the employees not reporting to work, the “hunger” sweeping the security forces, and chaos in the administration. But what was most noticeable in the report - one that was widely circulated by local and Arab news outlets - is what the author relayed while quoting “highly knowledgeable sources inside the airport,” as saying that “last week witnessed two catastrophic incidents featuring shooting at two civilian airplanes as they were landing. The first belonged to a Gulf airline, and one of its wheels was hit by a stray bullet. The pilot noticed something wrong with the wheels and informed the maintenance teams which fixed the problem and covered up the whole issue. As for the second incident, it was encountered by a plane belonging to a European airline, whose cockpit was also hit by a stray bullet. So, it underwent maintenance work for two days and left Lebanon, noting that some sources are talking about a third plane that encountered the same issue, without revealing further details.”
Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh, who is responsible for the airport, soon tweeted the following: “What happened at the airport is that a hole was discovered in the body of a plane affiliated with a Greek airline company before it took off from Beirut. So far, there is no official report from the company documenting the cause of that. As for the second report, it involves a very common incident that happens at airports. It is merely about a Qatar Airways plane that went over a metal object on the airfield, without any damage being caused to the plane.”
On January 15, Hamieh published an email featuring a technical assessment that indicated the damage was not caused by a bullet. But a few days later, Minister Hamieh erased this email from his Twitter account for reasons we could not verify.
A statement was issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation regarding the alleged incident encountered by a plane affiliated with the Greek Aegean Airlines that landed at Rafik al-Hariri International Airport on 10/1/2021.
The statement spoke about an email that came from the American organization, World Aviation Forum Report, which is adopted by international airline companies and organizations, detailing what happened to the Greek plane and indicating that the nature of the damage suggests it was caused by the aircraft hitting heavy equipment designated for ground services or the bridge designated for the transit of passengers to and from the aircraft. Then, in its seventh paragraph, the report recommended that the Lebanese Directorate General of Civil Aviation write to the Greek Civil Aviation Authority to review the place where the plane was parked at Athens’ Airport before it came to Beirut. This official statement was carried by a number of Lebanese news outlet.
For his part, Minister of Interior Bassam al-Mawlawi said that the hole in the Greek plane was caused by the plane hitting a small object on the ground before arriving to Beirut, and that no shooting targeted the plane (Mawlawi’s statement) (Mawlawi’s statement in Ash-Sharq newspaper).
In a statement, the Greek Aegean Airlines announced the temporary suspension of its flights pending the investigations, without giving any details about what caused the damage to the plane, or the nature of that damage, as reported by international news agencies, namely Reuters.
Fact Check Assessment: Likely False
The sensational claim in the original Asas Media report that at least two planes were shot at over Rafik al-Hariri International Airport doesn’t appear to be grounded in solid reporting. First, it is important to note that Asas Media is widely known for its support of Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE both of whom have generally been critical of the Lebanese government. Additionally, it is owned by former Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, who presents himself as a detractor of the existing regime.
The assertions carried by the website lack clear and solid sources. Instead, the author merely quoted “highly knowledgeable sources inside the airport” without clarifying their position. The author also failed to present verified pictures or videos of the damage, instead settling for a general description.
The author also confidently spoke about “shooting at planes” but referred as evidence to his personal belief that the airport is close to the Southern Suburb of Beirut, “where unbridled gangs of thieves and contraband have turned the safe and inhabited areas into permanent shooting fields on every happy or sad occasion. And all of this is happening with the knowledge of Hezbollah, which is very cautious when it comes to the feelings of its base and is avoiding any friction with its members under any circumstance. So, what would be the case if the parliamentary elections are imminent?” This overtly political analysis by the author (recognizing that Asas media regularly criticizes Hezbollah in its reporting), without any reference to data or shooting incidents, for example, around the airport, weakens the author’s original assertion by highlighting the ideological angle which Asas readers have become accustomed to over the several years of its existence.
The author also undermines his case further by tacking on still more sensational claims with no evidence to back them up. For example, under the sub-headline: “The detonation of the airport with a small amount of dollars?” the author wrote: “It would not be an exaggeration to say that arranging any ‘terrorist act’ by any ill-intentioned person or side would be very easy and with just a small amount of dollars,” in reference to what he had mentioned earlier in the piece regarding the difficult living conditions of the airport employees.
Unbowed by social media criticism about its original report, Asas seemed to double down on the political thrust of its original report, with the website carrying another piece two days later by Editing Director of Asas Media Muhammad Barakat, headlined: “The Greek company has suspended its flights, we want a neutral airport!” It should be noted that the statement of the Greek company did not feature such a request (“we want a neutral airport”) and explained further that flights were suspended specifically pending the results of the investigations. Barakat said:
“Dear Minister, Rafik al-Hariri International Airport is located in the heart of the Southern Suburb of Beirut. All the roads leading to it are controlled by one party, and almost no one else has any authority over it. And let us recall that this party invaded Beirut and the Jabal on May 7, 2008 due to a decision issued by the government at the time to replace Airport Security Chief General Wafik Chucair, who, as a result, stayed in his position. Therefore, this airport is not Lebanon’s or Beirut’s airport. It is an airport that is under a military occupation authority, much like a partisan airport. And Lebanon can only be saved from a catastrophe similar to the Beirut Port explosion catastrophe through the establishment of a “neutral” airport for all the Lebanese, in a neutral area where no one has any security or military control (...).”
