Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, and months before France goes to the next parliamentary elections, a controversial Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) advertisement has alerted security experts worldwide.
The PIA’s highly controversial social media post quickly went viral, racking up over 21 million views and sparking outrage online. An embarrassed Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was forced to order a probe.
In 1979, the PIA advertised its flights for New York with a Boeing 747 aircraft casting its shadows over the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, which, security experts believe, may have ‘inspired’ the 9/11 terrorists to target them for mass killings of nearly 3,000 people on September 9, 2001, according to the media reports on Wednesday.
On January 10, 2025, again, the PIA published a controversial advertisement, “Paris, We’re Coming Today”, with its aircraft speeding toward the Eiffel Tower.
It left netizens outraged and shocked. “It is seriously giving 9/11 vibes”, they warned.
The ad, which sought to promote the launch of a PIA flight from Islamabad to Paris, starting January 10, featured a dramatic image of a plane nosediving toward the Eiffel Tower, accompanied by the tagline, “Paris, We’re Coming Today
It ignited a fierce debate online with its latest advertisement announcing the resumption of flights to Europe after a four-year hiatus.
With Pakistan’s tainted international image as a failing state and a global nursery of terrorism, comparisons were drawn up immediately. Online discussions resurfaced about Pakistan’s historical ties to al-Qaida and other terror outfits and the implications of such imagery.
The resumption of PIA flights to the European Union follows the lifting of a ban imposed because of safety concerns, which was triggered by a tragic crash in Karachi that killed 97 people. However, the airline’s advertisement has overshadowed this significant milestone.
Critics linked the timing of the PIA advertisement to ongoing controversies involving Pakistani-origin individuals in the United Kingdom, particularly regarding grooming gangs. One user remarked, “Pakistan courts humiliation again! While #PakistaniGroomingGangs in the UK sparks outrage, PIA’s ad draws global flak for linking itself to 9/11—a chilling reminder of Pakistan-backed terrorist Osama bin Laden. Blunders or deliberate?”
Comments ranged from suggestions for the graphics team to revisit history to warnings for France regarding the implications of the ad. “PIA had done a similar ad in which an airplane was shown approaching the Twin Towers, and a few years later a plane crashed into them. France should be careful,” one user cautioned.
Another user said, the PIA “Needs to hesitate. You just cannot post a graphic with an aircraft inching towards the Eiffel Tower with the caption, “Paris, We’re Coming Today.”
Flooded with adverse publicity and terror angle, PM Sharif ordered a thorough investigation into a controversial social media post by the PIA that drew sharp criticism for its eerie resemblance to the 9/11 terror attack in New York. The ad, meant to celebrate the resumption of flights from Islamabad to Paris after four years, faced a social media firestorm.
The post shared on PIA’s official X account (formerly Twitter) on January 10, while intended to promote the airline’s milestone, struck many as alarmingly similar to the 9/11 attacks, where two planes hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists crashed into the Twin Towers. Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda and mastermind behind the terror attack, was killed in a US military operation on May 2, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Its worried Finance Minister Ishaq Dar addressed the issue in a Parliamentary Session, confirming the PM’s directive for an inquiry. “The Prime Minister has directed (authorities) to investigate who conceived this ad. It is stupidity,” Dar admitted.
Amid the uproar, PIA’s first flight to Paris in four years landed successfully at Charles de Gaulle Airport on January 10. The milestone came after the European Union recently lifted its ban on PIA flights, although the airline remains prohibited from operating in the US and UK.
This is not the first controversy to dog Pakistan’s national carrier. In 2017, PIA faced global ridicule after its staff sacrificed a goat on the tarmac for good luck. In 2020, a plane crash in Karachi claimed 97 lives and led to the EU ban after investigations revealed the pilot error and discovery that a third of Pakistan’s pilots held fraudulent licenses.