Scandal Shakes Rafic Hariri International Airport

A major financial scandal has rocked Beirut Wings S.A.L., a company specialized in aviation training at Rafic Hariri International Airport and the sector’s monopolist.

This comes after the closure of other similar companies and the refusal to grant new licenses by the head of the Aviation Safety Department, preventing competition with this company.

Details reveal that the director of Beirut Wings, Captain A.Y., and the operations manager, Captain W.H., embezzled around three million US dollars.

This was done by manipulating flight records and enabling many unqualified Lebanese and foreign flight students to obtain commercial aviation licenses.

They also sold these licenses, leading to significant safety risks due to the lack of serious qualifying exams for those granted licenses.

Additionally, they avoided conducting regular maintenance on the company’s aircraft, which flew beyond the permitted hours, by not logging flight hours in the aircraft records to hide the embezzlement.

All this happened under the cover of the head of the Safety Department in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Dr. A.Q., and some employees like Z.A. and A.M.,

who blocked any accountability, audits, or investigations into the numerous incidents involving the company’s aircraft. One such incident involved an engine failure of one of the company’s aircraft over the airport due to improper maintenance, forcing an emergency landing that nearly caused a disaster. This incident was completely covered up by falsifying reports and manipulating facts.

They also overlooked checking the qualifications of graduating flight students during their exams, even leaking exam questions to them! All this was in exchange for countless material and non-material benefits provided by the company and its owners,

Prince T.B.M. bin A.A. Al Saud and his Saudi partner A.A., who are trying to cover up this scandal through the company’s general manager, A.M. Following their orders, A.M. made a settlement with director A.Y., whereby A.Y. resigned from the company in exchange for not being prosecuted and overlooking the recovery of the embezzled amounts.

This means the losses will fall on the students, depriving the state treasury of large sums due to tax evasion and not declaring the actual profits made by the company,

which exceeded five million dollars under the pretext of embezzling a large part of those profits.

It is noteworthy that the ongoing embezzlement for years was accompanied by forgeries in the flight records of students and aircraft,

as shown by the records of the Air Navigation Department. They also committed fraud against dozens of students who were forced to pay exorbitant fees for English language exams supervised by an employee of Middle East Airlines, M.A., where the imposed fee was two thousand US dollars per exam,

while the actual cost to Middle East Airlines did not exceed one hundred fifty dollars according to their receipts.

Additionally, students were forced to pay huge sums for teaching hours conducted illegally outside the company and the airport, by non-licensed or qualified companies to give such lessons, such as Intercontinental Company owned by W.M. and his partner, the son of Captain A.Y., who charge over thirty thousand US dollars per student, while the Directorate sends documents stating the lessons were held at the airport.

Nothing is worse than this resounding scandal shaking the airport halls,

except for the Minister of Public Works and Transport ignoring it and all the corruption happening at the airport,

along with suspicious deals that would destroy what remains of Lebanon’s reputation, turning it into a failed state in every sense of the word.