Passenger aircraft under gun fire during Baghdad airport descent

[webfact]

Passenger aircraft under gun fire during airport descent

DUBAI: -- Dubai based Flydubai, Emirates Airlines, Sharjah’s Air Arabia and Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways suspended flights from Dubai to Baghdad in compliance with security guidance from the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority. A shooting incident involving Dubai's flydubai carrier at the airport of the Iraqi capital caused the suspension of services

A bullet hit the fuselage of a flydubai airliner on its descent into Baghdad. Flydubai flight FZ215 was hit by “small arms fire” before landing on Monday, but all passengers disembarked safely.

The Dubai carrier flydubai earlier said that damage had been discovered to the fuselage of one of its aircraft “consistent with small arms fire” after it landed at Baghdad on Monday.

An aviation official and a security official told the US news agency Reuters that two passengers were lightly injured when three or four bullets hit the body of the plane on Monday evening, but they were unable to specify the source of the gunfire.

An aviation official said Iraq had briefly suspended air traffic on Monday following the incident but that most flights had resumed on Tuesday morning.

Emirates Airlines suspended flights to the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, according to an Emirates executive.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways had “suspended all flights to the Iraqi city with immediate effect and until further notice”.

The website of Sharjah-based budget carrier Air Arabia also showed that flights to Baghdad were not available.

Full story: http://www.eturbonews.com/54910/passenger-aircraft-under-gun-fire-during-airport-descent

-- eTN 2015-01-27

[neverdie]

Scum bags. What a stupid evil thing to do, this could of ended really badly.

[DaddyWarbucks]

The US will defend the airport and the Green Zone with whatever it takes.

If they fall to IS forces it would be a symbolic victory that Washington isn't going to let happen.