Toussaint Louverture International Airport (PAP) in Port-au-Prince is again closed to commercial traffic after gangs attacked both outgoing and incoming flights. As reported, a Spirit Airlines flight from Miami suffered several impacts, while damages to an earlier departing JetBlue flight were minor and not detected until the flight had reached its final destination in New York.
Speaking during the Monday, 11 November 2024 routine La Semanal press conference, President Luis Abinader called the attacks on the commercial flights “acts of terrorism” and called for the international community to declare as terrorist organizations the gangs in Haiti.
During the weekly La Semanal press conference, President Abinader stated:
“That’s an act of terrorism. If the countries that are monitoring and assisting Haiti don’t declare these groups, these gangs, who are firing on a plane full of Haitian citizens, or perhaps American or any other nationality, people who are going to visit their families, completely innocent of any situation; if they don’t declare these gangs as terrorists, then I don’t know what they are. We are treating them as terrorist groups, and if they come here, they know what will happen to them. There are seven gunshot holes, there could have been a tragedy; the flight landed in Santiago. They have to declare them as terrorist groups, that’s what they are,” he argued.
The Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida that was about to land in Port-au-Prince was impacted by gunfire, with a flight attendant reportedly suffered minor injuries from debris. CBS News reported that the Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 was over a neighborhood about 550 feet off the ground when it began to quickly climb and the pilot requested special permission to land instead at the Cibao International Airport in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Commercial flights from Haiti into the Dominican Republic have been banned since March 2024 but can be allowed for emergency or humanitarian reasons.
A Jetblue was likewise impacted by gun shots earlier in the day. In a short statement, a spokesperson for JetBlue explained that flight 935 to New York JFK that had departed Port-au-Prince at around 6 am on 11 November 2024, and the flight crew were initially unaware of any issues.
After landing in New York, however, a post-flight inspection revealed evidence of what appears to be a bullet hole in the fuselage of the Airbus A320. The airline says it halts all flights to and from Haiti through 2 December 2024.
After the attacks on the Spirit and Jetblue flights, Noticias SIN reported that an Air Caraïbes that would have landed from Paris Orly International Airport in France was redirected to Santo Domingo. A Haitian airline Sunrise Airways flight that would have landed from Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe was detoured to Cap Haitien international airport in northern Haiti.
The attacks coincide with the Presidential Transition Council declaring a new Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils Aime, despite protests from outgoing Prime Minister Gary Conille.
Read more:
CBS News
Haiti Libre
US News
La Semanal 11 November 2024
Listin Diario
N Digital
Noticias SIN
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Social media video showing damages
12 November 2024