Fire at Lahore airport guts immigration system

LAHORE:

A fire broke out at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport in the wee hours of Thursday, disrupting the flight operations there, especially the global ones as even though the flames were doused soon enough, they severely affected the immigration system as preliminary reports suggest that they originated from one of the conveyor belts in the international departure lounge, quickly engulfing its counters.

Airports source said the fire rapidly destroyed the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) immigration system and counters. They added that the firefighters had to break the windows to gain entry there to put out the raging blaze.

Sources said the firefighters reached the airport an hour after the fire erupted.

The first two Hajj flights from the city were initially hit by delay because of the fire were sent off through manual immigration. However, at least 12 to 14 other flights scheduled to land in Lahore were either cancelled or diverted to Islamabad and Faisalabad airports.

The intending Hajj pilgrims were shifted out of the departure lounge at the time of the fire because of the build-up of smoke. In fact, a couple of them fell unconscious and taken to a hospital as the smoke made it difficult to breathe in the lounge. However, they later recovered and departed for their destination with the rest of the intending pilgrims.

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According to a NOTAM issued by the Lahore airport, international flights from the Lahore airport were suspended for five hours.

This resulted in the cancellation of 30 international flights to and from the city.

Later, the duration of the suspension of international flights was extended till 10pm.

The international immigration system’s (IMS) maintenance time at the Lahore airport has been extended till 10pm, a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson added that the international operations would be able to start as soon as the IMS system was restored.

“A notice has been issued for the information of international airlines.”

The spokesperson said the Lahore airport was available for domestic and cargo operations as usual.

He continued that the situation at the airport was gradually returning to normal and no casualties were reported in the fire. However, there were conflicting reports about the resumption of domestic flights to and from the Lahore airport.

A preliminary report of the fire has been submitted to Aviation Minister Khawaja Asif.

Two senior CAA officials have been ordered to reach Lahore airport immediately.

The CAA additional director general and deputy director general immediately left for Lahore airport by road from Islamabad.

The sources said during the blaze at the Lahore airport, neither did the fire tenders reach there soon, nor were measures taken to deal with the situation in time.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has also sought a report and ordered a thorough investigation into the fire at Lahore airport’s immigration counters.

The minister ordered that the immigration counters should be made functional again as soon as possible.