Experts say Baghdad airport does not offer appropriate conditions for landing of cargo planes.
I flew in and out of Bagdad, Mosul and Balad last year myself with a DC-8-62. We did it for about 6 months. Never had a problem there. Runways are nice and long, except for Mosul. Stick to the 15000' over head corkscrew approach, stay with the 5Nm airport radius and you're fine. I can't see why Baghdad doesn't offer appropriate conditions for cargo planes. As a matter of fact Baghdad has a big cargo ramp for freighters, I think it was called Kilo ramp......This accident sounds more like a strong x-wind error. I remember flying into Balad one day having winds 30 degrees of runway centerline blowing 35 gusting to 49 knots, it get's pretty windy there....