2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident

2003 attack by Iraqi insurgents near Baghdad International Airport

On 22 November 2003, shortly after takeoff from Baghdad, Iraq, an Airbus A300B2 200F cargo plane, registered OO DLL and owned by the Belgian division of European Air Transport (doing business as DHL Express), was struck on the left wing by a surface to air missile while on a scheduled flight to Muharraq, Bahrain. 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. Paris Match reporter Claudine Vernier Palliez accompanied a disbanded Fedayeen unit on their strike mission against the EAT aircraft. 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. 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. 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. 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.

The aircraft took off from Baghdad International Airport en route to Bahrain International Airport at 06:30 UTC. 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.

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. 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". 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. The N1452 registration expired in 2017. The aging aircraft did not fly again and has since been parked.

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).