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From Page One
“It’s very special to be here,” said
Manuel Mehl, who came “spontaneous-
ly” from Pfaffenhofen in Germany with
his American wife Shanique Chintsanya.
Director General of the site’s operat-
ing company SETE Patrick Branco Ruivo
said the top would re-open on July 15,
though just eight people will be allowed
into the elevators at a time, instead of
the usual 45.
The 104-day closure cost the com-
pany EUR27 million (USD30 million) in
lost sales, he said, adding that visitor
numbers will be tightly limited for now.
The Eiffel Tower usually receives
about seven million visitors per year,
some three-quarters from abroad.
The absence of crowds was no prob-
lem for Iris Wang, a 25-year-old from
China. “It’s more peaceful and quiet,”
she told AFP.
Alex, 15, visiting with his mother from
the Netherlands, said, “It’s my irst time
in Paris and it’s really great to be here
- we saw the Eiffel Tower was opening
today so we thought we should come.”
Ground markings were made to en-
force social distancing, and SETE has
promised “daily cleaning and disinfec-
tion of public spaces at the tower.”
France is one of the world’s most vis-
ited countries, and its tourism industry
has taken a hard hit under the lockdown
to halt the COVID 19 pandemic, with ho-
tels, restaurants, museums and theatres
closed for three months.
France lifted restrictions at Europe-
an borders on June 15, and the tourism
industry hopes that foreign visitors will
start pouring in again as the summer
season kicks off.
At the Eiffel Tower, ticket prices
for children have been halved for July
and August.
“Parisians and French, now is the
time to come to the Eiffel Tower, you
won’t have to stand in line!” Branco
Ruivo said.
While some of the tower’s eateries
have re-opened, the Michelin-starred
Jules Verne, which has its own elevator
to a dining room perched 125 metres
(410 feet) above the ground, will open
on June 30.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s
state-run airline said yesterday
it will ground 150 pilots, accus-
ing them of obtaining licences
by having others take exams
for them after a probe into last
month’s crash that killed 97
people in Karachi.
Abdullah Hafeez, a spokes-
man for Pakistan International
Airlines (PIA), didn’t give addi-
tional details about the cheat-
ing but said a process to ire
the pilots had been initiated.
“We will make it sure that
such unqualiied pilots never
ly aircraft again,” he told The
Associated Press. He said the
safety of passengers was the
airline’s top priority.
The move by PIA to ground
the pilots comes a day after
the country’s aviation minister,
Ghulam Sarqar Khan, said 262
out of 860 Pakistani pilots had
“fake” licences. He made the
revelation while presenting
preliminary indings of a probe
to Parliament into the May 22
Airbus A320 aircraft crash.
Theannouncementstunned
lawmakers present in the Na-
tional Assembly and shocked
family members of passengers
who died last month when
Flight PK8303 after departing
from the eastern city of Lahore
went down in a congested resi-
dential area in Karachi, killing
97 people, including all the
crew members. There were
only two survivors and a girl
died on the ground.
Neither Khan nor Hafeez re-
leased additional details about
Pakistan to ground 150 pilots
for cheating to get licences
the alleged methods used by
the pilots to wrongfully obtain
licences to ly commercial
planes. Khan said only that
they did not take examinations
themselves to get the required
certiicates, which are issued
by the civil aviation authority.
But oficials familiar with
the process involved in issuing
pilot’s licences said an unspeci-
ied number of people who
had the skills to ly a plane but
lacked technical knowledge
had in the past bribed quali-
ied persons to take exams for
them. They didn’t elaborate.
The oficials, who spoke
on condition of anonymity be-
cause of the sensitive nature
of the matter, said PIA learned
about the scandal two years
ago and had ired at least four
pilots at the time on accusa-
tions of falsifying exams to
obtain a licence from the civil
aviation authority.
Shortly after the crash, Paki-
stan announced it would probe
the incident and share its ind-
ings. Khan presented prelimi-
nary indings of the investiga-
tion into last month’s crash to
Parliament on Wednesday. He
said the pilot, before making
his irst failed landing attempt,
did not pay attention to warn-
ings from the air control tower
when he was told the plane was
too high to land. However, he
said the pilot and co-pilot were
medically it and qualiied to ly.
File photo shows volunteers looking for survivors of a Pakistan
International Airlines plane that crashed in a residential area of
Karachi, Pakistan. PHOTO: AP
‘Tears of joy’: Eiffel Tower opens
after 104-day virus lockdown
ANKARA, TURKEY (AP) — A moderately
strong earthquake hit southeast Turkey
yesterday, causing damage to some
homes. There were no immediate re-
ports of any casualties.
The 5.4-magnitude quake struck the
town of Ozalp, in Van province, near Tur-
key’s border with Iran, at a depth of 6.9
kilometres, Turkey’s Disaster and Emer-
gency Management Presidency said.
It was felt in neighbouring provinc-
es, HaberTurk news channel reported.
Governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez said
the quake knocked down parts of a
house in a village near Ozalp and dam-
aged some homes in the town.
“Apart from that, we have no loss of
lives,” he said.
Turkey is crossed by two major fault
lines, and earthquakes are frequent.
Turkey’s worst quake in decades was in
1999, when a pair of strong earthquakes
struck in the northwest, killing around
18,000 people.
5.4-magnitude earthquake hits
eastern Turkey; homes damaged
BENI, CONGO (AP) — Eastern Congo
marked an oficial end yesterday to the
second deadliest Ebola outbreak in his-
tory, which killed 2,280 people over
nearly two years, as armed rebels and
community mistrust undermined the
promise of new vaccines.
Thursday’s milestone was overshad-
owed, though, by the enormous health
challenges still facing Congo: the
world’s largest measles epidemic, the
rising threat of COVID 19 and another
new Ebola outbreak in the north.
“We are extremely proud to have
been able to be victorious over an epi-
demic that lasted such a long time,” said
Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who coordi-
nated the national Ebola response and
whose team also developed a new treat-
ment for the once incurable hemorrhag-
ic disease.
The announcement initially was set
for April but another case emerged just
three days before the Ebola-free decla-
ration was expected. That restarted the
42-day waiting period required before
such a proclamation can be made.
The epidemic, which began in Au-
gust 2018, presented an unprecedented
challenge for the World Health Organi-
zation (WHO), Congo’s Health Ministry
and international aid groups because
it was the irst Ebola epidemic in a
conlict zone.
Armed groups posed such a risk
that vaccinations sometimes could only
be carried out by small teams arriving
by helicopter.
But much of the risk to hospitals
and health workers came from the com-
munities, often angered by the pres-
ence of outsiders and the amount of
money being spent on Ebola as far more
people died of perennial killers like ma-
laria. Some suspected the epidemic
was a political scheme, a theory that
grew after then President Joseph Kabi-
la cancelled the national elections in
Ebola-affected areas.
Only a few years earlier, West Africa’s
Ebola epidemic killed more than 11,000,
as at that time there was no licenced
vaccine or treatment. By the time of the
eastern Congo outbreak there was not
one but two new experimental vaccines
to ward off the disease that kills about
half its victims.
After more than a quarter century
of conlict, though, distrust of govern-
ment health workers and other outsid-
ers was exceptionally high in eastern
Congo. Many residents initially outright
refused the vaccine, fearing it would
harm them.
Congo announces end to 2 nd deadliest
Ebola outbreak ever