According to Parliament’s Public Works Committee, planes landing at Beirut Airport could in theory crash into the newly completed, 122-meter Metropolitan Tower in Sin al-Fil.
A member of the committee who asked not to be identified said the danger was outlined in letters signed by the General Director of the Civil Aviation Authority and the General Director of City Planning. He argued that according to civil aviation guidelines no building in a plane’s runway approach path can be higher than 150 meters – including ground elevation. Natural ground elevation at the Metropolitan Tower site is 98 meters, he said. This implies that the Metropolitan Tower shouldn’t be taller than 42 meters.
In a letter to the Lebanese media, the Habtoor Group, which owns the Metropolitan Tower, says that an extension to Lebanese Law No. 402/95 allows hotels to increase built-up-area skyward in exchange for added payment on the value of the land. The company says it was granted permission to construct more floors on 16 December 2002, under addendum 90247 of the law, by the Council of Ministers then presided over by slain former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, and with the accord of the Higher Council for Construction and Redevelopment and of the then tourism minister. Habtoor says it paid the municipality the additional sum of $2,200,000, in line with Law No. 402/95, to be allowed to construct more floors.
The letter also notes that in the years of al-Habtoor’s presence in the Sin al-Fil area, neither the company nor residents of the region have observed any aeroplanes flying over. Ominously, the letter warns that if investors who are helping Lebanon negotiate its economic woes are subjected to this kind of pressure, they may decide to pull out.
“I am not prejudiced against the Metropolitan Tower,” the Public Works Committee member said. “But the license given them to build was unlawful.”
He said the only solution was to make modifications to the airport’s Eastern runway, 3-21, something currently being examined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
A more cynical interpretation was offered by a Lebanese MP on condition of anonymity. “I understand that the underlying politics of this is the continuing joust between the Hariri group and the anti-Hariri group. I don’t see how this building can be a hazard to an aeroplane,” he said.
