Baghdad airport director suspended pending probe into lighting outage that grounded flights

BAGHDAD — Acting Transport Minister Khalid Shwani on Wednesday suspended Baghdad International Airport’s director and ordered an urgent investigation after a power outage in the navigational lighting system forced a temporary halt to flights overnight.

Shwani directed the formation of a committee to determine the circumstances of the closure and submit recommendations within 72 hours, “in order to take the necessary measures according to the results it reaches, and to ensure that such incidents do not recur.”

The airport director has been temporarily suspended “as part of ensuring the application of the principle of administrative accountability and guaranteeing that the investigation procedures proceed with transparency and high professionalism,” the ministry said.

Flight operations resumed Wednesday. The ministry said passenger movement and procedures were proceeding normally, and denied earlier reports of any security-related cause, attributing the closure solely to a technical malfunction.