Libyan Airlines Airbus A330 and Airbus A320
Taken by Donal Morrissey @birrlad on IG
Since the start of the month, more than 100 bombings have been reported in Tripoli Libya as the government move in on the key Haftar base. The country has had an ongoing civil war for years which resulted in ceasing operations from Libya to Europe in 2011.
On the 3rd of May, there was a rocket attack, presumingly launched by thereafter-affilated militias, that left multiple aircraft damaged in Mitiga Airport, Tripoli. Thankfully, neither of the two planes that were hit had any passengers onboard at the time of the attacks.
The two aircraft hit were an Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320 and a Buraq Airlines Boeing 737. In a statement released by Buraq Air, the aircraft had received major damage and was no longer able to be used due to shrapnel parts hitting the aircraft. They told this to AirportHaber. A spokesperson for Afriqiyah Airways, Imram Zabadi, has also stated that the aircraft has endured too much damage to be used again.
In reports written by AA.com, they suggest that nine rockets were fired at Tripoli Airport. They also said that one of these rockets hit close to the airport causing ‘fear and panic’ amongst the passengers and staff.
Afriqiyah Airways is lucky in the fact that they have a larger fleet of 15 aircraft in service. This includes 1 Airbus A300, 11 Airbus A320 family aircraft and three Airbus A330. Buraq Air on the other hand only operated 6 Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Now with one of these planes no longer usable, they have to resort to only 5 other aircraft of the same type.
From September to the end of November, the airport had undergone a suspension period due to frequent rocket attacks on the facility. These attacks on September 1st left four people wounded. The airport had frequently come under fire since the launch of an offensive by Khalifa Haftar military in April 2019. This was part of a campaign to take the capital from the Government of National Accord. The airport began operating flights again in December 2019. However, rocket attacks have increased once again at the airport. One attack which happened towards the end of February forced the airport to suspend their operations again, according to Reuters.
It is a great pity to see these airlines that began their operations in the airport on the 12th December 2019 have received such substantial damage to their aircraft as a result. Other Libyan airlines including Libyan Wings and Buraq soon followed after. However, more attacks soon followed on the 9th of May.
Two Libyan Airlines’ Airbus A320 and Airbus A330 were damaged on the 9th of May due to a mortar attack that took out a fuel depot at Mitiga Airport. A United Aviation Learjet 60XR and the Libyan Air Force Ilyushin IL-76. It’s presumed that it was the military commander Halifa Kaftar that carried out this second incident in the space of a week. The Airbus A330 was hit by a rocket shrapnel for the second time this year. Luckily, it was empty along with the Airbus A320 on Saturday. The other two aircraft have been completely destroyed by bombs.
Photo taken by Reuters
The Airbus A320 registered 5A-LAQ is seven years old and had just arrived from Istanbul. The Airbus A330 is registered 5A-LAU which had been parked in Tripoli for over 8 months. It was undergoing repairs from being damaged in a night time shelling on the 1st of September 2019. The aircraft had landed in Tripoli that day from Medina operating flight LN1275 and were disembarking passengers at the time of the incident. At around 2am local time, rockets fell a few metres away which injured several passengers but didn't cause any casualties. However, the plane endured substantial damage from shrapnel.
The United Aviation Learjet 60XR registered 5A-UAE was completely destroyed by these bombs. The aircraft was initially delivered to the company back in 2010. The Libyan Air Force Ilyushin IL-76 was another aircraft caught up in these attacks. This isn’t the first time, this aircraft type has endured incredible damage in Libya. The Libyan Air Force under the Government of National Accord carried out multiple drone attacks on Al-Jufra Airbase in central Libya in July 2019. The air base was under command of the Libyan National Army. They are a political faction that is in conflict with the internationally recognised Government of National Accord. Two Ilyushin Il-76 transport planes belonging to the Ukrainian airline Europe Air registered UR-CMC and UR-CRP were destroyed. The captain of UR-CMC died in the attack. He reportedly tried to save the documents on board.
The Airbus A320 was one the aircraft that was preparing to operate a repatriation flight to bring home stranded Libyans in Spain, according to Al Jazeera, the Libyan Ministry for Transport.
The attack last Saturday was part of a large-scale strike on Tripoli. This attack reportedly included as many as 80 rocket strikes which killed six people and injured dozens of others. These attacks were fueled by the Libyan Government of National Accord’s who launched air raids on an LNA base outside of the capital just days before.
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