Baghdad: Celebratory gunfire, perhaps from a wedding, may explain the bullets that struck a flydubai aircraft while landing at Baghdad International Airport, according to an Iraqi minister.
Iraq's transportation minister, Baqir Jabr Al Zubaidi, sought to reassure international airlines by dismissing the shooting as "accidental."
"What happened was an accident," Al Zubaidi told reporters in Baghdad on Tuesday. The minister said the gunfire hit the plane when it was at an altitude of 600 metres and was struck by three rounds of bullets.
He said that authorities had determined the area where the gunfire had originated, but did not provide any further detail about the source.
A security and airport official said a "spray of bullets" hit the plane as it touched down on Monday night.
'Simple scratch'
"The whole thing was just a simple scratch to a little girl," he added.
One passenger, a 6-year-old girl, was slightly injured when at least three bullets struck the plane Monday, airline and Iraqi officials said.
The passenger who was struck, Fatima Tabra, was sitting toward the front of the plane. She suffered light grazes to one of her hands, caused by bits of plastic that sprayed when one of bullets pierced the fuselage, according to her father, Ahmed Tabra.
Tabra, who was not on the plane, said his family had said that the plane was struck about 10 minutes before landing.
After the bullet sliced through the airplane, leaving a hole, the slug fell at Fatima's feet, her father said.
The flydubai 737-800 aircraft was carrying 154 passengers when it was struck by gunfire about 10 minutes before it landed at Baghdad International.
“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," an airline spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.
Zubaidi said that Iraq's national carrier was prepared to pick up passengers if other international carriers continued to suspend their flights. He asked journalists to join him on a 10-minute flight around the city, "to send a message to everyone that the airport is secure."
Shooting into the air during celebrations is a common practice in Iraq.
However, other officials in Baghdad have not ruled out the fact that the aircraft may have been targeted on purpose and a security official told Reuters authorities had rounded up suspects in farmlands south of the airport.
Several news outlets, including Kurdish news channel KNN, said eight shots were fired into the aircraft.
Air traffic temporarily halted
Air traffic was also temporarily halted around the airport due to “security measures.”
As a result of the incident, the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Tuesday summoned the Iraqi ambassador, Muwaffaq Mehdi Abboud, "to express its grave concern" over the incident.
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.
During the meeting, Mohammed Mer Al Raisi, Undersecretary of MoFA, expressed the UAE's concern and demanded that the Iraqi authorities launch a comprehensive investigation, news agency WAM reported.
He also demanded that Iraq "take necessary measures to enforce international agreements on civil aviation safety and provide the required guarantees and protection".
A US State Department spokesman in Washington said in an email Tuesday: "Local airport officials have informed our Embassy in Baghdad that four shots struck a FlyDubai aircraft yesterday (Monday). We are consulting with Iraqi security officials to obtain more details of the incident."
