2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident information
2003 attack by Iraqi insurgents near Baghdad International Airport
DHL Flight 209
OO-DLL, the A300 involved in the accident, photographed in June 2003
Attempted shootdown
Date
22 November 2003 (2003-11-22)
Summary
Missile attack leading to loss of hydraulics
Site
Baghdad International Airport, Baghdad, Iraq
Aircraft
Aircraft type
Airbus A300B4-203F
Operator
DHL Express
Registration
OO-DLL
Flight origin
Baghdad International Airport Baghdad, Iraq
Destination
Bahrain International Airport Muharraq, Bahrain
Occupants
3
Crew
3
Fatalities
0
Injuries
0
Survivors
3 (all)
On 22 November 2003, shortly after takeoff from Baghdad, Iraq, an Airbus A300B2-200F cargo plane, registered OO-DLL and owned by the Belgian division of European Air Transport (doing business as DHL Express), was struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile while on a scheduled flight to Muharraq, Bahrain.[1] Severe wing damage resulted in a fire and complete loss of hydraulic flight control systems. Because outboard left wing fuel tank 1A was full at takeoff, no fuel-air vapour explosion occurred. Liquid jet fuel dropped away as 1A disintegrated. Inboard fuel tank 1 was pierced and leaking.[2]
Returning to Baghdad, the three-man crew made an injury-free landing of the seriously damaged A300, using differential engine thrust as the only pilot input. This was despite major damage to a wing, total loss of hydraulic control, a faster-than-safe landing speed, and a ground path that veered off the runway surface and onto unprepared ground.[3]
Paris Match reporter Claudine Vernier-Palliez accompanied a disbanded Fedayeen unit on their strike mission against the EAT aircraft.[4]
Sara Daniel, a French weekly newsmagazine journalist, claimed receipt, from an unknown source, of a video that showed Iraqi insurgents (belonging to IAI), faces concealed, firing a missile at the EAT A300.[5][6][7] Daniel was researching a feature about Iraqi resistance groups, but she denied any specific knowledge of the people who carried out the attack, despite being present at the moment of attack.[6]
^Cite error: The named reference asn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Great escape". Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
^"Air Crash Investigators"
^"Voici le commando qui a touché l'Airbus", Claudine Vernier-Palliez, Paris Match, N° 2845 – 27 Novembre 2003
^"Tape purports to show missile attack on cargo jet". 25 November 2003.
^ abDaniel, Sara. Voyage to a Stricken Land. Arcade Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1559707852, pg. 77
^Nance, Malcolm (2014). The Terrorists of Iraq: Inside the Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq Insurgency 2003–2014. CRC Press. pp. 168–169. ISBN 978-1498706896.
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