Bizarre new service by CAA? Buy rotis and fries and get access to classified information

By
GEO NEWS
|
Bizarre new service by CAA? Buy rotis and fries and get access to classified information

KARACHI: Who knew accessing sensitive information about aeroplanes and airports was as easy as buying bread for your next meal?

Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) just made that possible when it decided to sell off its classified documents to the garbage collector instead of disposing of them in a more secure and appropriate way.

As bizarre as it sounds, extremely important and sensitive documents belonging to the CAA have been discovered at several vendors and kiosks selling fries, rotis (bread), and bun kebabs (burgers) in and around the Karachi airport area.

These documents include reports on plane accidents as well as letters written by the Ministry of Defence to the CAA. An investigative report on a CAA calibration aircraft involved in an accident in the UAE was also found among these documents.

Turns out, the CAA took the easy way out by selling off these files to the garbage collectors without caring to find out how sensitive the documents were.

According to CAA sources, the prescribed method to dispose of documents at the organisation is that the concerned board first carefully inspects all old documents, then sorts out the sensitive files and burns them.

The rest of the documents are sold off to scrap.

The sources added that if the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) were to find out the process to get rid of sensitive files at the CAA was this unsafe, it would bring great shame to Pakistan. 

Embarrassing, indeed, for the CAA as well as the country. Perhaps it is not too late for the CAA to round up all these files from the vendors and shred them before more people get to know behind-the-scenes information on air accidents?