(Tom: Nothing like personal and team mate competence to increase your survival chances!)
On November 22, 2003, a DHL Airbus A300B4-203F, registration OO-DLL, departed Baghdad International Airport in Iraq, bound for Bahrain. The aircraft was carrying mail, and its three-man crew expected an otherwise routine cargo flight.
Just over three minutes after takeoff, while climbing through approximately 8,000 feet, a surface-to-air missile struck the aircraft’s left wing.
The explosion caused extensive structural damage, ignited leaking fuel and destroyed the aircraft’s hydraulic systems. Within seconds, all three hydraulic circuits had lost pressure, leaving the pilots without conventional control of the ailerons, elevators and rudder.
The situation was extraordinary. The aircraft could no longer be controlled using its normal flight controls, and there was no established emergency procedure for recovering from such a complete hydraulic failure.
In the cockpit were Captain Éric Gennotte, First Officer Steeve Michielsen and Flight Engineer Mario Rofail.
Rather than give up, the crew began experimenting with the only controls that remained available: the engine throttles.
They discovered that adjusting the thrust of both engines could influence the aircraft’s pitch, while applying different amounts of thrust to each engine could produce the directional changes needed to manoeuvre.
It was an extremely difficult process. The aircraft responded unpredictably, and the damaged left wing created an additional imbalance that made maintaining a steady flight path even more challenging.
The crew gradually learned to manage the crippled aircraft.
As the emergency continued, the captain ordered the landing gear to be extended using the emergency gravity-extension procedure. Flight Engineer Mario Rofail operated the system manually. The deployed landing gear created additional drag, helping reduce the aircraft’s excessive airspeed.
The crew then began working their way back towards Baghdad International Airport.
First Officer Steeve Michielsen assisted with navigation, monitoring altitude and distance while Captain Gennotte continued manipulating the engine throttles. Meanwhile, Rofail monitored the damaged wing’s fuel supply and handled radio communications.
After approximately 25 minutes from the missile impact, the aircraft approached Runway 33L.
The landing was anything but normal.
With no conventional directional control, the Airbus touched down at approximately 220 knots, far above its normal landing speed. It immediately veered off the runway and continued across the sandy ground.
The crew used reverse thrust, while the soft sand helped slow the aircraft. It eventually came to a stop after travelling approximately one kilometre.
The three crew members escaped alive. One sustained a minor cut from razor wire during the evacuation, but there were no serious injuries.
The Airbus was too badly damaged to fly again and was ultimately written off.
The incident became one of aviation’s most extraordinary examples of crew resource management, improvisation and human adaptability.
It demonstrated something remarkable: even after losing every hydraulic flight-control system, a large commercial aircraft could still be brought back to the ground through exceptional teamwork and the careful management of engine thrust.
Three crew members. One crippled Airbus. No conventional flight controls. One extraordinary landing.
