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Bullets hit passenger plane at Baghdad airport Sorry - this page has been removed.
(2 months later)
Airlines from at least three countries have suspended flights to Baghdad after bullets hit a passenger plane as it was landing at the city’s airport. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
An aviation official and a security official said two passengers were lightly injured when three or four bullets hit the body of the plane – operated by budget carrier Dubai Aviation Corp under the flydubai name – on Monday evening.
The security official said the authorities had rounded up suspects in farmlands south of the airport, which sits on Baghdad’s western outskirts. For further information, please contact:
It was not clear if the shooting was intentional. Guns are widely available in Iraq and celebratory gunfire into the air is not uncommon.
Iraq’s Shia-led government, backed by US-led air strikes, has been trying to push back Islamic State militants since they swept through northern Iraq in June.
But the nearest fighting to Baghdad’s airport is on the western outskirts of Abu Ghraib, more than 10km away.
The aviation official said Iraq had briefly suspended air traffic on Monday following the incident but permitted it to resume on Tuesday morning.
However, flydubai, Emirates Airlines, Sharjah’s Air Arabia and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways suspended flights on Tuesday, in line with a directive from the United Arab Emirates’ civil aviation authority.
Turkish Airlines and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) also suspended flights for the day without citing the shooting incident.
Company officials said Iraqi Airways and Iran’s Caspian Airlines were operating flights to Baghdad on a normal schedule.
A spokesperson for flydubai denied that any passengers had required medical treatment and said an investigation was under way.
“After landing at Baghdad International Airport (BGW) on 26 January 2015, damage to the aircraft fuselage consistent with small arms fire was discovered on flydubai flight FZ 215,” the spokesperson said.