Prime Minister Saad Hariri chaired a meeting at the Rafik Hariri International Airport during which he discussed with ministers and security officials means to enhance services at the terminal.

Following the meeting, Hariri toured the air traffic control tower as well as a number of halls in the airport.

Also after the meeting, Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi held a news conference during which he announced what has been tackled during the meeting.

The attendees studied plans, projects and proposals to enhance services at the airport through improving the regulatory authority’s performance and adopting international standards to ensure the security of aviation.

Placing cameras along the fence surrounding the airport, proposals to improve utilities at the facility as well as measures to protect civil aviation and ease the accommodation of tourists were also discussed during the meeting.

The meeting came a few days after airport workers in Riyadh found a human body on the landing gear of a flight from Beirut, after a man apparently tried to hitch a ride on the plane.

The body was discovered when a maintenance worker went to inspect the right rear landing gear of the Airbus 320 after it landed at Riyadh’s King Khaled International Airport on the flight from Lebanon, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement.

The body was identified as that of Firas Haidar, 20, from the southern village of Markaba in the qada of Marjayoun.

Haidar, who was said to have been suffering from psychological problems, lived in the Beirut suburb of Burj al-Barajneh near the airport.

Interior Baroud chaired a meeting for the Central Internal Security Council that was attended by top security officials.

The council discussed the latest findings of the ongoing investigations into the plane’s incident.

The council decided to forward a recommendation to Hariri to form a committee tasked with checking on all security measures taken at the airport to determine any flaws and propose suitable solutions.

The airport security committee is to comprise of representatives from all the concerned ministries and administrations and is supposed to perform its task within one week after assuming its duties.

In other news, the interior minister granted the chief of security at Rafik Hariri International Airport Brigadier Wafiq Choucair a one-month leave and would take a final decision regarding his resignation request after the conclusion of judicial investigations.

Reports said that Choucair had been replaced by Elia Obeid who became the acting security chief in the airport.

Choucair submitted a report to Baroud including investigations about the airport’s incident with a request to accept his resignation.

Also, the council tasked the airport security apparatus with beefing up security measures due to the increasing number of people visiting Lebanon via the airport.

Progressive Socialist Party leader lawmaker Walid Jumblatt praised in a statement Choucair’s move, saying that “it is a precedence in Lebanon that a security official voluntarily resigns.”

Jumblatt described what happened in 2008 regarding Choucair’s sacking as a “misunderstanding.”