ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: About 57 international flights carrying relief goods were diverted to different airports of the country from Islamabad causing delay in supply of these goods to the earthquake-affected areas, sources in the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told Dawn on Saturday.

However, they said, commercial flights were being accommodated at the airport and some of the aircraft remained parked for even a whole day providing no parking bay for the relief goods flights.

The sources said instead of welcoming the crew of foreign aid planes, they had been charged by the Ground Power Unit (GPU) for utilizing its services. Similarly, they were also compelled to pay goods handling charges.

“The planes of a courier service, a private airline and PIA flights coming from Lahore occupy the parking terminals for over 20 hours, but nobody takes care of those foreign flights coming to help the countrymen,” said an official of the CAA.

A source at the control tower said a courier service flight landed at the airport at 5:11am on Saturday and remained parked on the bay till 11:18pm.

The airport has an “isolated bay” which is used in case of emergency. “This bay can provide parking facility to four aircraft but is not being used by the CCA at a crucial time,” they added.

The sources said CAA’s fire fighting section had the most sophisticated equipment to cope with any emergency but its staff and equipment had not been utilized for the rescue of hundreds of people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

The sources said the CAA had more than 30 thermal cameras to detect alive people under the debris of buildings or aircraft and similar number of auto-cutters which could be used to cut concrete structures within no time; but these were also not used at the time of the disaster.

Similarly, they said, the CAA fire fighting staff was not allowed to work voluntarily in the quake-hit areas.

They said only three thermal cameras were used by the foreign rescue teams — one in the Margalla Towers and two in the AJK — and about 600 people were rescued alive with the help of the equipment.

When contacted, newly-appointed manager of the Islamabad airport Mohammad Ishfaq said he was not responsible for any negligence, if committed, on part of the CAA because he took over the charge of his office on October 11.

He confirmed that about 57 international flights carrying relief goods had been diverted to Lahore and Karachi due to lack of space and parking bays.

“We have only eight bays and aircraft like 747 and Airbus, which are being used for carrying relief goods, can park in four of them,” he added.

He said most of the flights were being diverted to Lahore but the goods were not offloaded there, as with the availability of space at Islamabad they were called back.