| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Iraq | |
| Iraq Airport Official Arrested over MEA Row | |
| 2014-03-08 | |
[An Nahar] The deputy head of Storied Baghdad airport was enjuggedYez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! after a Storied Baghdad-bound Middle East Airlines plane that left Beirut without the Iraqi transport minister's son was ordered mid-flight to turn back, the premier's front man said Friday. Samer "Kubba was arrested... because his action was wrong and harmful to the prestige of the Iraqi state," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's front man Ali Mussawi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Middle East Airlines said Thursday that Iraqi authorities forced its Storied Baghdad-bound flight to turn around some 20 minutes out of Beirut because Transport Minister Hadi al-Ameri's son, Mahdi, had missed the flight. MEA said the flight had taken off after repeatedly paging two passengers, who failed to turn up. "The passengers did not respond to the calls and the plane took off after being delayed by several minutes," it said. "About 20 minutes after take-off, Middle East Airlines was informed by its Storied Baghdad office that the plane would be prevented from landing by local civil aviation officials if a passenger was not on board." The missing passenger was identified as Mahdi al-Ameri, and the plane turned back to Beirut. Following the incident, Mussawi said Maliki ordered that "all those responsible for preventing the plane coming from Beirut from landing in Storied Baghdad" be "dismissed and held responsible." But transport ministry front man Karim Nuri said it was "completely untrue" that the flight was turned back on behalf of Ameri's son. He insisted that MEA had been previously told that the plane would not be able to land due to runway maintenance at the Storied Baghdad airport, which is why it was turned back. | |
| Posted by:Fred |