Fadi al-Hassan, the director-general of civil aviation, stated on Monday regarding the Israeli jamming of the GPS system that "aircraft land at Rafic Hariri Airport relying on ground navigation equipment." He added in an interview with "Sputnik": "It is crucial today for a pilot to have two means for landing at any airport. The first is the signal received by the aircraft's GPS device from satellites, which has been experiencing jamming since March until the present day in the region. The second means is for the pilot to rely on the ground navigation systems available at the airport, which we utilize today without recording any incidents or malfunctions."
He continued: "There must be two means for landing, and this is what we have requested, both through the formal complaint submitted by the Cabinet and through meetings held by the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamieh, with the International Civil Aviation Organization." Al-Hassan pointed out that "from now until then, and according to global safety standards, aircraft land at Rafic Hariri International Airport using ground navigation equipment."
Regarding a report from the "Telegraph" newspaper, he mentioned: "A few days ago, we saw video clips of passengers leaving Rafic Hariri International Airport aimed at terrorizing people, followed immediately by an article in the British newspaper (The Telegraph). The important thing is that our response to what was stated was with evidence and an official statement issued by the International Air Transport Association."
He added: "We also invited all accredited ambassadors in Lebanon for a tour to observe the security measures in place at the airport." On passenger movement, Al-Hassan stated: "We did not expect such a high volume of traffic at this time of year, and we have not yet entered the peak season; nevertheless, over 300,000 arrivals came during the month of June."
