2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident

The aircraft involved, in 1988 while in service with its previous operator, Malaysia Airlines

The aircraft involved was a 24-year old Airbus A300B4-203F. It first flew on 18 October 1979 and was delivered to Malaysia Airlines as a passenger aircraft registered 9M-MHB on 28 December 1979. The aircraft was sold to Carnival Air Lines registered N225KW in June 1995. The plane was converted into cargo configuration in March 1999, and was delivered to the Belgian division of European Air Transport, under whom it operated as DHL, on 22 September 2000.[8]

The aircraft took off from Baghdad International Airport en route to Bahrain International Airport at 06:30 UTC with 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.[9] 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.[10]

External video
Footage of missile strike on YouTube

To reduce exposure to ground attack, the aircraft was executing a rapid climbout. Around 8,000 ft (2,400 m) 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.[1][11] 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. The aircraft pitched rapidly up and down in a roller-coaster phugoid, oscillating between a nose-up and a nose-down position.

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.

Damage to the left wing due to the blast

External video
Landing footage on YouTube

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.[2]

Around 400 ft (120 m) 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 3,300 ft (1,000 m).[2]

The Honourable Company of Air Pilots jointly honoured all three crewmembers with its Hugh Gordon-Burge Memorial Award.[12] 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".[13]

In May 2006, Captain Éric Genotte, together with Armand Jacob, an Airbus experimental test pilot, gave a presentation to the Toulouse branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society titled "Landing an A300 Successfully Without Flight Controls".

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.[1][14] The N1452 registration expired in 2018. The aging aircraft did not fly again and has since been scrapped.

The incident was featured in "Attack over Baghdad", a season-three (2005) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday[15][16] (called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the U.S. and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and elsewhere around the world).

• Japan Airlines Flight 123
• United Airlines Flight 232
• Civil Aircraft Missile Protection System
• Flight Guard
• Flight with disabled controls
• List of airliner crashes involving loss of control

• Aviation Week and Space Technology, 8 December 2003

• Criminal Occurrence description at the Aviation Safety Network
• Agence France-Presse article about the incident
• ParisMatch article by Claudine Vernier-Palliez, who accompanied the Fedayeen commando unit that attacked the plane.
• Paper by Jacques Rosay
• Australian Government Civil Aviation Safety Authority
• Australian Society of Air Safety Investigators

33°15′45″N 44°14′04″E