By Rory Jones in Dubai, and Safa M. Majeed and Ghassan Adnan in Baghdad
A plane carrying 154 passengers came under fire on Monday after
landing at Baghdad International Airport in a possible Islamic
State attack, prompting airlines to cancel flights and reigniting
concerns about flying through conflict zones.
Low-cost carrier FlyDubai said early Tuesday that flight FZ215
to Baghdad was fired at by small arms as it landed just before 5
p.m. local time, damaging the fuselage of the Boeing 737-800
aircraft. All passengers disembarked normally through the jet
bridge and no medical attention was required at the airport,
FlyDubai said.
Aviation and security officials said that three or four shots
that appeared to be sniper fire were discharged from Radwaniya,
south of the airport.
But the intention and perpetrators of the attack were unclear by
Tuesday evening as security officials claimed the attack was
deliberate while aviation officials sought to show they had the
safety of the airport under control after multiple airlines
suspended flights.
Concerns about airlines flying into conflict zones have grown in
the past year after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over
Ukraine in July, killing all 298 people on board. Airlines had
largely stopped flying over Iraqi airspace after the advance into
the country last year of Islamic State.
The U.S. and its Arab allies in September began launching
airstrikes against Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria. Saad Al
Mutalibi, a member of the security committee in Baghdad's
provincial council suspected the militant group had shot at the
plane in an attempt to disrupt aviation services to Iraq.
Security forces had launched an operation in the Abu Ghraib area
to the west of Baghdad to secure the perimeter of the airport, Mr.
Mutalibi said by phone on Tuesday.
Transport Minister Baqer Al Zubaidi said the airport was running
with "no problems at all" and called on Arab counties to resume
flights to Baghdad.
"We will take tough measures against the attackers of the plane
whoever they are," Mr. Zubaidi said in a televised statement on a
local channel on Tuesday evening.
FlyDubai on Monday sent a replacement aircraft to Iraq to carry
passengers back to Dubai, and then suspended flights to Baghdad
until further notice as a result of the shooting.
Preliminary information provided to FlyDubai indicated the shots
fired were unintentional, the airline said in an updated statement
on Tuesday, without elaborating.
Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways said it would also suspend flights to
the Iraqi capital after the General Civil Aviation Authority in the
United Arab Emirates issued a ban on flying to the city due to
security concerns.
Dubai's Emirates Airline, the world's biggest international
carrier by traffic flown, Air Arabia and Turkish Airlines also
canceled flights to Baghdad. But Emirates said it would continue
flying to Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region and Basra in the south
of the country.
The U.A.E.'s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Iraqi
ambassador to its offices to demand an investigation into the
incident, according to the country's news agency.
"The U.A.E. plane incident is a deliberate attack. It's not a
casual, unintentional," Hamid Al Mutlaq, a member of the security
and defense committee in Iraq's parliament, said by phone on
Tuesday.
The U.S. government in August told airlines flying over Iraq to
remain at higher altitudes. U.S. carriers are now prohibited from
flying over the country below 30,000 feet, while European safety
regulators issued similar guidance.
Iraq was previously a busy trunk route for airlines traveling
between Europe and the Persian Gulf hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and
Doha, or beyond to Southeast Asia. Air France, Deutsche Lufthansa
AG and Virgin Atlantic Airways all said they had ceased flying over
Iraq.
Etihad and Emirates had diverted most of their traffic through
Iran's airspace to connect to Europe and some ports in the U.S. But
the airlines had continued flying direct to Iraq.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the aviation
safety arm of the United Nations, is due to host a meeting on
commercial flights in areas of conflict in the coming weeks in
Montreal. Stakeholders are trying to find a balance between keeping
flights safe and avoiding unnecessary disruptions to airlines and
their passengers.
Write to Rory Jones at rory.jones@wsj.com
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