BEIRUT: A passenger plane flying from Lebanon to Iraq turned back yesterday after the Iraqi transport minister’s son missed the flight and phoned Baghdad to stop the aircraft from landing.
Marwan Salha, acting chairman of Middle East Airlines (MEA), said the flight, scheduled to leave at 1240, was delayed for six minutes while MEA staff looked for Mahdi Al Amiri, son of Hadi Al Amiri, and his friend in the business lounge. “We made the necessary announcements and the last calls,” he said.
Salha said that when Amiri arrived at the gate he was angry and said: “I will not allow the plane to land in Baghdad.”
Twenty-one minutes into the flight, the Baghdad airport station manager called MEA operations to tell them there was no clearance to land, Salha said. The plane returned to Beirut and the passengers disembarked.
“It’s very disturbing because this is pure nepotism,” Salha said, adding that he hoped to resume flights to Iraq today.
Iraq’s Transport Ministry confirmed the airliner had been turned around but said this was due to airport cleaning and that the minister’s son had not been due to be a passenger on it.
Kareem Al Nuri, the transport minister’s media adviser, said: “There were cleaning operations in the airport and specific measures were taken. We asked all flights not to land in Baghdad airport after 9 am, but this flight arrived after this time, so we asked it to turn back.”
An official at Baghdad airport, who asked not to be named, said air traffic was normal, with 30 flights landing yesterday. The only one turned around was the one from Beirut.
REUTERS
