DHL Flight on 22 November, 2003
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The DHL flight of Baghdad was an aviation event which took place in the Iraq war.
Events
On 22 November 2003, a DHL Airbus A300 cargo plane took off from Baghdad to Bahrain at 0630 GMT with a crew of three -- two Belgians and a Briton. Shortly into the flight, the area near the tip of the left wing was hit by a surface to air missile fired by an insurgent group.
The plane lost all its hydraulic lines, meaning that the plane could not be steered by normal control. Instead, the captain, recalling the accident of United Airlines Flight 232, which involved a DC-10 in similar circumstances, used every pilot's trick he could think of. As the plane began to go into repeated phugoid gyrations he shoved both throttles up. This helped keep the plane steady, until lowering the landing gear, which completely altered the stability.
The next problem was when they could not land back at the airport, because they were too high in the air. If they attempted to make a steep descent, the plane would crash. The situation was further complicated by the fuel steadily streaming out of one of the tanks, and the fire on the left wing.
They turned, whilst being videotaped by a French journalist, who saw the missile being fired, and American Apache helicopters. Finally, they managed to land back at the airport. Maintaining a straight landing was almost imposible without hydraulics, and the aircraft slid left and off the runway. Fortunatly, the landing gear did not fail and the plane came uneventfuly to a halt. However, the area to the side of the runway was littered with unexploded ordance. In order to get the flight crew away safely a fire truck backed up slowly to the plane, then moved away again, and the flight crew followed the tire tracks to safety.
Criticisms and aftermath
The French journalists later came under criticism for not trying to stop the attack. The incident became recognized because it was the first and only time ever that a crew, without any hydraulics, had managed to land a transport category aeroplane safely. The crew has been given some of the highest standard awards the aviation community had to offer. For the flight engineer, it was a good point on which to retire.
DHL also came under criticism for sending crew members into Iraq without any choice or danger pay.
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