Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, once touted as “the nation’s pride” after undergoing extensive renovations, has been plagued by a series of mishaps and breakdowns over the past few days, prompting some to called the airport “a national disgrace.”
Foul-smelling water said to contain urine and fecal matter leaked onto one section of the arrivals lobby at the airport’s Terminal 1 at about 6am yesterday morning.
The airport authorities dispatched workers to clean up the contaminated water, which leaked from a broken toilet drain pipe on the third floor.
An airport spokesperson said the area was cleaned by about 9:30am.
However, wet spots were still visible on the floor and the stench lingered when television crews and journalists arrived there in the morning.
“Taoyuan airport is Taiwan’s gateway to the world. It’s unbelievable this is happening. It’s very embarrassing,” a passenger said.
“What a rotten airport. This is a national disgrace,” another passenger said when interviewed by the reporters.
Taoyuan airport has experienced five such incidents within four days this week.
Some media outlets said the number of consecutive days with problems at the airport was “a new record,” while critics accused airport officials of mismanagement and dereliction of duties.
On Sunday, an elevator at Terminal 1 linking the main lobby’s check-in area to departure gates on the second floor, broke down for about 10 minutes.
On Monday, staff working at the Customs and Immigration area in Terminal 2 discovered pools of water on the floor, as rain poured down from the leaky roof.
The workers used buckets to remove the water.
Later that night, a power outage occurred at both terminals, leaving some areas without electricity for about 20 minutes.
The fourth incident occurred on Tuesday, when an office at the Terminal 2 departure hall was doused with water leaking from the roof area, and some ceiling panels fell down.
Regarding yesterday’s foul leakage at Terminal 1, an airport spokesperson said: “A toilet drain pipe burst on the third floor, causing water to leak out. Workers found it was due to a blockage caused by people throwing things like gauze masks and female sanitary pads down the toilet.”
The airport authority attributed the mishaps to unforeseen circumstances, along with the rainy weather on the leaky roof, which needs to be patched up.
The airport has been praised for its stylish new look following the NT$2 billion (US$68 million) upgrade, which was completed in late 2012.
However, critics have accused the airport authority of poor supervision and shoddy maintenance work.
Some critics have accused airport officials of corruption which has caused the recent mishaps.
One netizen, surnamed Huang, said: “This is such a disgrace, a big joke for the world to see.”
A netizen surnamed Chuang said: “This is outrageous. We must root out the officials responsible for the airport’s mess.”
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