DHL resumes flights to Baghdad
The global package delivery service DHL said it has resumed flights to Baghdad last week, six days after one of its planes was hit by a missile on its approach to the airport.
“From the advice we received, it is now a safe environment to fly,” DHL spokeswoman Patricia Thomson told The Associated Press. She said flights to Baghdad International Airport resumed last Friday and the cargo company would “soon try to commence with three flights per day.”
Thomson refused for security reasons to say what added measures DHL was taking to prevent further attacks.
Security fears were heightened by a Nov. 23 attack in which a missile struck a DHL cargo plane, forcing it to make an emergency landing at the airport with its wing aflame. All three crew members were unhurt.
A U.S. military investigation indicated the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile.
It was the first time a civilian aircraft flying in and out of Baghdad had been hit by the shoulder-fired missiles that insurgents have used to down military helicopters elsewhere in Iraq.
DHL, which had been making several flights a day to and from Baghdad, suspended its flights after the emergency landing.
DHL International Ltd., based in Brussels, is a unit of German postal service Deutsche Post, Europe’s largest mail company.
