2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident

DHL Flight 209 Attempted shootdown DHL Flight 209 Shootdown-10.jpg Damage to the left wing after being struck by a surface-to-air missile 2003 11 22 y Missile attack leading to loss of hydraulics Baghdad International Airport, Baghdad, Iraq OO-DLL Aircraft.jpg OO-DLL, the aircraft involved, seen 2 days before the attempted shootdown Airbus A300B4-203F Baghdad International AirportBaghdad, Iraq (Coalition Provisional Authority) Bahrain International AirportMuharraq, Bahrain European Air Transport OSCAR OSCAR DELTA LIMA LIMA OO-DLL 3 3 0 3 On 22 November 2003, shortly after takeoff from Baghdad, Iraq, an Airbus A300 cargo plane, registered OO-DLL and owned by the Belgian division of European Air Transport (doing business as DHL Aviation), was struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile while on a scheduled flight to Muharraq, Bahrain. Severe wing damage resulted in a fire and complete loss of hydraulic flight control systems.http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/great+escape-191713/ https://archive.today/20130123100946/http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/great+escape-191713/ dead Great escape 23 January 2013 19 July 2012 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."Air Crash Investigators" Paris Match reporter Claudine Vernier-Palliez accompanied a disbanded Fedayeen unit on their strike mission against the EAT aircraft."Voici le commando qui a touché l'Airbus", Claudine Vernier-Palliez, Paris Match, N° 2845 – 27 Novembre 2003 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.https://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/25/sprj.irq.missile.tape/index.html Tape purports to show missile attack on cargo jet 25 November 2003 Daniel, Sara. Voyage to a Stricken Land. Arcade Publishing, 2006, 1559707852, pg. 77Nance Malcolm The Terrorists of Iraq: Inside the Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq Insurgency 2003–2014 CRC Press 2014 978-1498706896 168–169 English 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. Aircraft and crew The aircraft involved was a 24-year-old Airbus A300B4-203F. The plane had an experienced crew of three: two Belgians, 38-year-old Captain Éric Gennotte and 29-year-old First Officer Steeve Michielsen, and a Scotsman, 54-year-old flight engineer Mario Rofail.http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2006/4/30/1045/07104 European Tribune 30 April 2006 Special planes: OO-DLL hit above Bagdad Elco B. 9 July 2013 The captain had 3,300 total flight hours, more than half of them logged in the A300. The first officer had 1,275 hours of flight experience and the flight engineer had 13,400 hours of flight experience.http://asasi.org/2004_PPTs/Malinge_Airbus%20Bagdhad_ISASI04_PPT.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20050625095108/http://asasi.org/2004_PPTs/Malinge_Airbus%20Bagdhad_ISASI04_PPT.pdf dead 25 June 2005 Tribute to Capt Eric Gennotte, to F/O Steeve Michielsen & to Flight Engineer Mario Rofail Yannick Malinge 31 March 2018 Flight 0N5Pd6t8WHw Footage of missile strike Missile strike thumb|A diagram of a phugoid cycle The aircraft took off from Baghdad International Airport en route to Bahrain International Airport at 06:30 UTC. To reduce exposure to ground attack, the aircraft was executing a rapid climbout. At around 8000 ft altitude, a 9K34 Strela-3 (SA-14 Gremlin) surface-to-air missile struck the rear of the left wing between the engine and the wing tip.https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/pilots-relive-iraq-missile-attack-189818/ Pilots relive Iraq missile attack 9 November 2004 Flightglobal.com The warhead damaged trailing-edge surfaces of the wing structure and caused a fire. All three hydraulic systems lost pressure, and flight controls were disabled. 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. The aircraft pitched rapidly up and down in a roller-coaster phugoid, oscillating between a nose-up and a nose-down position.Attack over Baghdad Mayday Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic Channel 3 2 2005 As in the case of the 1989 United Airlines Flight 232 disaster in the United States, Captain Genotte could only use thrust to modify pitch, speed, and altitude and vary throttles asymmetrically to control yaw and turn the aircraft. Flight engineer Mario Rofail executed a gravity drop to extend the landing gear, a procedure normally accomplished with hydraulic power. Early deployment of the gear was critical to a safe outcome because increased drag helped reduce speed and stabilize the aircraft. In about 10 minutes of experimentation, the crew learned to manage turns, climbs, and descents. After a meandering trajectory, they executed a right turn and initiated a descent path to Baghdad International Airport. Final approach and emergency landing 1J19m2AsD3U Landing footage Because of left wing damage and fuel loss, Rofail had to monitor the engine closely; if fuel flow was lost from the left side, he would have to feed fuel from a right tank to maintain thrust. Survival was dependent on accurate power control of each jet engine. Genotte and Michielsen set up for a final approach to runway 33R. The aircraft drifted to the right of the intended course, so Genotte chose the shorter 33L runway. Visibility was excellent and the pilots managed a controlled descent. They knew, counterintuitively, that they could not reduce the throttles before touchdown without risking the nose or a wing smashing into the ground. thumb|A view of the aircraft after it stopped thumb|left|The right rear landing gear Around 400 ft on above ground, turbulence upset the aircraft balance and the right wing dipped. With thrust adjustments, the roll was controlled, but the aircraft touched down off the runway centerline. Rofail immediately deployed full reverse thrust, but the aircraft veered off the paved runway. The aircraft ran through rough, soft ground, throwing up a plume of sand and dragging a razor-wire barrier, and halted after about 1000 m on flip. thumb|A close up of the left wing Awards and aftermath thumb|left|The flight crew after the incident The Honourable Company of Air Pilots jointly honoured all three crewmembers with its Hugh Gordon-Burge Memorial Award.The Gordon-Burge Memorial Award https://web.archive.org/web/20190407095127/https://www.airpilots.org/about-the-company/trophies-and-awards/award-winners/the-hugh-gordon-burge-memorial-award/ 7 April 2019 – THCAP This is awarded to flight crew whose actions contributed outstandingly to saving their aircraft or passengers, or made a significant contribution to future air safety. The annual award is made only if a nomination is considered to be of significant merit. The Flight Safety Foundation's FSF Professionalism Award in Flight Safety was presented to the crewmembers for their "extraordinary piloting skills in flying their aircraft to a safe landing after a missile strike following takeoff from Baghdad, Iraq".FSF Professionalism Award in Flight Safety https://web.archive.org/web/20130521071136/http://flightsafety.org/aviation-awards/fsf-professionalism-award-flight-safety 21 May 2013 | Flight Safety Foundation The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) awarded each crew member with its Polaris Award - in recognition of acts of exceptional airmanship, heroic action or a combination of these two attributes. In extraordinary cases, passengers may also obtain this award for their heroism. These awards are not made every year but only on merit. In addition to severe wing and undercarriage damage, both jet engines suffered ruinous abuse by ingesting debris. In November 2004, the aircraft was repaired and re-registered as N1452, then put up for sale, but remained unsold.https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20031122-0 ASN Aircraft accident Airbus A300B4-203F OO-DLL Baghdad International Airport (BGW) Ranter Harro aviation-safety.net 13 June 2017https://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled/Airbus-A300B4-203-F/1909863 Aviation Photo #1909863: Airbus A300B4-203(F) - Untitled Airliners.net The N1452 registration expired in 2017.N1452 (AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A300 B4-203 owned by PACIFIC AEROMOTIVE CORP) Aircraft Registration http://www.flightaware.com/resources/registration/N1452 2024-01-04 FlightAware en As of 2025, the aircraft remains at Baghdad International Airport.November 2025 In popular culture The incident was featured in "Attack over Baghdad", a season three (2005) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday(called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the U.S. and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and elsewhere around the world). The aircraft was featured in an episode of Brum.June 2026 See also Belgium Iraq Aviation Japan Air Lines Flight 123 United Airlines Flight 232 Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 Civil Aircraft Missile Protection System Flight Guard Flight with disabled controls List of airliner crashes involving loss of control Further reading Aviation Week and Space Technology, 8 December 2003 References External links 20031122-0 Criminal Occurrence Agence France-Presse article about the incident ParisMatch article by Claudine Vernier-Palliez, who accompanied the Fedayeen commando unit that attacked the plane. Paper https://web.archive.org/web/20221210105632/https://www.smartcockpit.com/aircraft-ressources/Baghdad_A300_Incident.html 10 December 2022 by Jacques Rosay Australian Government Civil Aviation Safety Authority Australian Society of Air Safety Investigators September 2019 33 15 45 N 44 14 04 E type:airport_source:kolossus-itwiki title Baghdad EAT Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A300 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Iraq Baghdad DHL shootdown incident Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident Category:DHL Category:21st-century aircraft shootdown incidents Category:November 2003 in Iraq Category:2003 disasters in Iraq Category:Muharraq Category:Belgium–Iraq relations Category:Disasters in Baghdad Category:Baghdad International Airport Category:Baghdad in the Iraq War