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| Iraq |
| Iraq Turns Back MEA Flight after 'Minister's Son Misses Plane' |
| 2014-03-07 |
| [An Nahar] Iraqi authorities forced a Storied Baghdad-bound Middle East Airlines plane to turn around Thursday 20 minutes after leaving Beirut because the transport minister's son had missed the flight, MEA said. The Airlines said the flight took 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," said the statement, carried by the state-run National News Agency. "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, son of Iraqi Transport Minister Hadi al-Ameri, and the plane turned back to Beirut. MEA said it was in touch with Iraqi authorities about the incident, which it said had caused financial losses and disrupted its flight schedule. In Storied Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded that heads roll over the incident, while the transport ministry denied any wrongdoing. Maliki ordered that "all those responsible for preventing the plane coming from Beirut from landing in Storied Baghdad" be "dismissed and held responsible," front man Ali Mussawi told Agence La Belle France Presse. 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 informed 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 |
| #1 "Do you know who I AM?" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2014-03-07 07:34 |