Pilots Say Missile Was Fired at Airliner in Northern Iraq

[sabra]

Source: NYTimes

A European civil aviation authority said yesterday that it was reviewing security conditions at airports in northern Iraq after two pilots reported that their passenger airliner had been attacked by ground fire last week while taking off from Sulaimaniya.

The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operated by Nordic Airways and carrying more than 120 people, was not struck and continued to Stockholm.

But its pilots have told investigators that they saw the flash and light of a missile rise from the ground, arc near the plane and then drop away as they climbed between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, said Anders Lundblad, a spokesman for Luftfartsstyrelsen, the civil aviation authority in Sweden, where Nordic Airways is registered.

...

Two Swedish aviation companies have operated regular routes serving Sulaimaniya and Erbil, the international airports in northern Iraq. On Friday, all Swedish flights to the region were suspended indefinitely.

...

Brig. Sarkawt Hassan Jalal, the director of security in the Sulaimaniya region, said local investigators had found no evidence of a missile shot. “There was not an attack, not even from the bullet of a pistol,” he said by telephone. “No rocket, not a thing. All of this is just propaganda.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/world/middleeast/14mi...

[liberal N proud]

1. Hint: Don't fly airliners over Iraq

[Marrah_G]

2. Why is anyone surprised????

You mean someone fired a rocket at a plane in the middle of a civil war? I am SHOCKED....... SHOCKED, I tell you!

[FreakinDJ]

3. So who gave them "Stinger Missiles"

that would be my next question

[file83]

6. The stinger has a range of over 15,000 ft, but I guess if it was shot from too far

away, it could have gone beyond its range, and fallen away as described in the article.

Those stingers have been floating around that part of the world since the mid 80's - supplied by the CIA to the Afghani "Freedom Fighters" via the Pakistani ISI.

So, it was us that supplied them.

[RantinRavin]

8. Probably not a Stinger type missle

Most likely an unguided RPG. A "Stinger" type missle would not have missed sucha large heat source.

[semillama]

4. In other news,

there are passenger airlines flying in and out of Iraq.

[0007]

5. Is the new club med in action these days?

[burrowowl]

7. No it was a spark in your fuel tanks

and you are lucky it didn't start a fire! Don't fly out of NYC either.