The deputy head of Baghdad airport was arrested after a Baghdad-bound Middle East Airlines plane that left Beirut without the Iraqi transport minister's son was ordered to turn back, a government official said on Friday.
Samer "Kubba was arrested... because his act was wrong and harmful to the prestige of the Iraqi state," spokesman of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Ali Mussawi, said.
Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki ordered on Thursday to expel and to hold accountable all those found responsible for not allowing the Lebanese plane to land in Baghdad.
This comes after a passenger plane flying from Lebanon to Iraq turned back after the Iraqi transport minister's son missed the flight and phoned Baghdad to stop the aircraft from landing, Middle East Airlines (MEA) said.
Marwan Salha, acting chairman of MEA, told Reuters the flight, scheduled to leave at 1240 (1040 GMT), had been delayed for six minutes while MEA staff looked for Mahdi al-Amiri, son of Hadi al-Amiri, and his friend in the business lounge.
"We made the necessary announcements and the last calls," he said. "The plane took off but one of the passengers turned out to be the son of the minister of Iraq."
Salha said that when Amiri arrived at the gate he was angry and said: "I will not allow the plane to land in Baghdad."
Twenty-one minutes into the flight, the Baghdad airport station manager called MEA operations to tell them there was no clearance to land, Salha said. The plane then returned to Beirut and the passengers disembarked.
"It's very disturbing because this is pure nepotism," Salha said, adding that he hoped to resume flights to Iraq on Friday but that there would not be another flight on Thursday.
Transport Minister Hadi al-Amiri is head of the Badr Organization, once an armed Shi'ite armed group, and a political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Iraq's Transport Ministry confirmed the airliner had been turned around but said this was due to airport cleaning and that the minister's son had not been due to be a passenger on it.
LBCI/REUTERS
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