A number of airways have suspended flights to Haiti after a passenger aircraft from the US was hit by gunfire because it tried to land in Port-au-Prince.
Spirit Airways Flight 951 from Fort Lauderdale in Florida was diverted to the neighbouring Dominican Republic the place it landed safely at Santiago Airport.
A flight attendant suffered minor accidents, the airline stated in an announcement, including that no passengers had been damage.
It’s the second time in three weeks that plane have been shot at over the Haitian capital.
Haiti is within the grip of a deep political disaster with armed gangs controlling massive elements of the nation.
On Monday, a brand new prime minister was put in by the nation’s ruling council after the previous leader, Garry Conille, was ousted lower than six months into the job.
The Spirit Airways flight had been scheduled to land at Toussaint Louverture Worldwide Airport on Monday simply earlier than 12:00 native time (17:00 GMT) when it was hit.
Unverified video of the incident shared on social media appeared to indicate a number of bullet holes on the within of the plane, the place the crew sit throughout take-off and touchdown.
Spirit Airways stated that injury “in keeping with gunfire” was discovered when the aircraft was inspected at Santiago Airport. The aicraft was taken out of fee, Spirit added.
The airline stated it had additionally suspended flights to Haiti “pending additional analysis”.
Two different US airways, American Airways and JetBlue, have additionally suspended flights to Haiti till at the least Thursday.
The safety state of affairs has additional deteriorated in Haiti in current months. In October, gang members opened hearth at a UN helicopter, inflicting some airways to quickly cancel flights to the Caribbean nation.
A UN-backed policing mission, led by officers from Kenya, had begun in June in an try and wrest again management from gangs.
Spirit is a low-cost airline, based mostly in Florida, which flies all through the US, Caribbean and Latin America.
