An Air France passenger plane was nearly hit by ballistic missiles during Iran's missile attack on Israel, which took place on October 1.
According to a report by the German news outlet Bild, the flight departed from Paris en route to Dubai. As it passed through southwestern Iraqi airspace, just before 19:45 (Israel time), the pilots noticed missiles near their aircraft from the cockpit. Bild notes that the plane likely flew close to the path of the missiles launched from Iran.
The report states that an Air France spokesperson refused to comment on the details of the incident but mentioned that the airline had launched an internal investigation to assess the incident.
The company also noted that at 20:00 (Israel time), Air France halted all flights over Iraqi airspace. It also completely avoided flying over the airspace of Israel, Lebanon, and Iran on that day, opting for a different route used by other airlines. Iraqi authorities also closed their airspace to flights, but the order to shut down the country's airspace came about an hour after Iran's missile attack on Israel.
Iran has previously been involved in an international crisis after it downed a Ukrainian civilian passenger plane on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 passengers aboard. Iran initially denied responsibility for the crash, but later admitted that its air defense forces had mistakenly shot down the plane. The missile strike occurred just hours after Iran had launched an attack on US military bases in Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. It is believed that Iran's military, on high alert after their own strike, mistakenly identified the civilian aircraft as an enemy plane and fired a missile, leading to the tragic crash.
