'This is the picture they chose': Airline's graphic showing plane heading for Eiffel Tower sparks 9/11 comparison

10 January 2025, 15:46 | Updated: 10 January 2025, 16:31

Social media has lost it over an "ominous" graphic posted by an airline to celebrate the resumption of a flight route.

On Friday, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) announced that flights between Islamabad and Paris were to return from January 10 following a ban.

The state-run airlines were allowed to resume direct flights to Europe after the four-year ban over safety standards was lifted, officials said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the announcement, saying it would help improve the airline's image.

However, an image posted by the airline might have had the opposite effect - as it shows a PIA plane seemingly flying into the Eiffel Tower along with the caption "Paris, We're Coming Today."

'Fire the designer'

One social media user shared the graphic saying: "After 4 years, Pakistani Airlines resumes flights to Paris. This is the picture they chose."

One questioned: "I’m sure they could’ve come up with something better…" and a fourth stated "Fire the designer".

Another said the graphic designer was definitely born "post 2001."

Another said simply: "Is this... a threat?".

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However, an alternative view of the image described as "Genius marketing".

"An otherwise unremarkable new route announcement is world famous because of this fiendishly clever mockbait.

"Masterclass."

The curb on PIA was imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi in southern Pakistan.

Then-aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said an investigation into the crash found that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots had cheated on their pilot exams.

A government probe later concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error.

The ban caused a loss of nearly 150 million dollars a year in revenue for PIA, officials say