"Airplane!" Some of the passengers of Air France Paris-Beirut flight on Wednesday night may have had in mind this crazy American film of 1980. Not that pilot proficiency is in doubt. Far from it. But given the unspeakable misfortune of travelers on that flight, it is legitimate to ask if the captain did not land a another planet ... Thinking also applies equally well to the general management of Air France in Paris ...

Estimating, in the current explosive situation in Syria, that Damascus is safer than Beirut can be explained by the (sad) fact that those who took the decision of diversion in the direction of the Syrian capital are completely disconnected from the realities. Is it possible they are unaware that French leaders continue to condemn loudly - and rightly so - the crimes committed by the Syrian regime? Is it possible they do not know at this point that more than half of the Lebanese are in open conflict for several years with the Damascus regime? Is it possible that the captain did not know that French ambassador in Beirut was on board? Or perhaps those who took the decision to land at Damascus knew that the aircraft in question was a plane from Air "France"! How, therefore, the management of the company can demonstrate it so lightly endangering the safety of not only the ambassador of France, but also numerous Lebanese passengers? Unless the management does not take the trouble to follow the news, or even just listen to the public statements of French leaders - Laurent Fabius in mind - to realize that the regime in Damascus behaves in a bestial manner and acts with no calm when it reaches the hands of anyone who is critical about it.

The statement issued by the company said yesterday, of course, the goal was to land in Amman and thatnthe pilot discovered he did not have enough kerosene and was therefore forced to land in Damascus! Clearly, what management tells us is that there does not exist a gauging system for determining the quantity of kerosene left ... Or that the commander is novice and he could not judge the distance between Beirut and Amman ...

But apart from these considerations, the story does not say why, initially, the plane has not landed in Beirut, as others have done elsewhere, while the protests occurred Wednesday were not more dramatic than other similar incidents that have unfortunately increased in recent times on the way to the airport. Why Lebanese militia are now more dangerous than the war situation and the murderous madness raging in Damascus? And no one has yet explained why the plane was not diverted to Larnaca rather than Amman and Damascus ...

Source: L'Orient Le Jour (in French)