PIA’s Paris promo crashlands, Eiffel tower post sparks 9/11 jokes and outrage-Read

How a Pakistan International Airlines post on X led to an online outrage as the resumption of flights to Paris reminded people about the 9/11 attacks on trade towers in the US.

PIA’s Paris promo crashlands, Eiffel tower post sparks 9/11 jokes and outrage

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) literally flew into the ‘hall of shame’ after its unintentional, but most disastrous social media post to announce its resumption of flights from Islamabad to Paris.

The social media post attacted as many as 3,500 comments, most of  them negative as the image in the post showed a PIA aircraft flying into the iconic Eiffel tower, reminiscent of the 9/11 attack on the twin towers in the United States.

The PIA social media managers were apparently left red-faced after their campaign flew into their faces with angry netizens asking whether it was an announcement or a ‘threat’. The PIA was resuming its flight operations four years after a ban imposed by the EU.

Unfazed by the criticism online, the PIA indeed flew its aircraft to Paris on schedule and posted images of the Boeing 777 landing in Charles de Gaulle airport. But netizens were unforgiving. “This campsign is rated 9/11”, wrote an X user.

Another user recalled how the PIA had earlier in the 70s used the silhouette of an airplane across the twin towers, which were destroyed in the 9/11 attack using aircrafts by terrorists. “You can take Bin Laden our of Pakistan, but never out of Pakistanis”, wrote another.

The PIA post on X is retweeted by over 11,000 users, while it was viewed byoer 18 million users.

Here is the PIA post on X:

pic.twitter.com/qUoNCyL385

— PIA (@Official_PIA) January 10, 2025