About a week ago, a 727 had a terrible shake while parked in Mosul. The mortar landed within 60 meters of the right wing! The crew thought a truck had hit the acft in the back.
Mortars impacts have been observed there several times before that incident, since the acft is parked close to the fence and the airport is surrounded by the city.
The airline director and the inspector at the civil aviation authority ( the little king ) are still very happy with safety conditions there and have not suspended the flights.
The airline director is putting enormous pressure on the crews to continue the flights to Mosul and threatened to terminate whoever does not want to get the job done. A lot of pilots are still refusing to fly to Mosul.
The acft in Basrah was actually hit by debris of the mortar and was damaged. The crew was at the acft at the time, but luckily was not hurt.
The truck bomb yesterday in Balad was reported as a controlled explosion by DHL security, although it resulted in several fatalities!
Supposedly, DHL in Germany would allow flights to Iraq only if the safety conditions are satisfactory!
