A US airline Spirit Airlines plane was shot at while landing in the capital of Haiti and was diverted to the city of Santiago, in the neighboring Dominican Republic, the company reported this Monday, adding that one of its crew members was slightly injured. No passengers were affected by the incident.
Spirit Airlines Flight 951 had departed from Fort Lauderdale, in southeastern Florida, heading to Port-au-Prince, a city that has been subject to a wave of gang violence for months. According to a statement from the airline, after the arrival of its plane at the Dominican airport, an inspection confirmed damage to the device consistent with gunshots.
The flight attendant who suffered minor injuries is being treated by medical personnel, the company added. According to the Miami Herald newspaper, the wounds correspond to the graze of a bullet. Spirit Airlines took the impacted plane out of circulation and is preparing another aircraft so that its staff and passengers who wish to do so can return to Fort Lauderdale.
powerful gangs
The airline canceled its flights to Cap Haitien, in the north of the Caribbean nation, and Port-au-Prince, pending evaluation of the security situation. The U.S. Embassy in the Haitian capital reported that the Port-au-Prince airport authority grounded all planes following the incident, and warned that gangs are determined to block travel to and from the city, which may include barricades. on the roads and the use of violence.
The American airline American Airlines also decided to suspend its flights between Miami and Port-au-Prince until Thursday, as indicated in a statement sent to AFP. JetBlue adopted a similar measure and will analyze the situation in the coming hours to see if the suspension is extended for more days.
Haiti has been suffering for months from a wave of violence unleashed by powerful gangs that control more than 80 percent of the capital. At the end of February, these armed groups managed to paralyze the Toussaint Louverture international airport after a series of attacks against key infrastructure in Port-au-Prince. A UN-supported mission deployed Kenyan police in an attempt to control the situation.
#Plane #shot #PortauPrince #flights #suspended #Diario #Página
