November 5, 2003	Wednesday	Ramazan 9, 1424

WASHINGTON: The downing of an American Chinook helicopter in Iraq shows the danger to aircraft in the country and could be another blow to the opening of Baghdad’s airport, aviation analysts say.

Sixteen US soldiers died on Sunday when the CH-64 Chinook was struck by a missile believed to have been shoulder launched. The prospects of a civilian plane being shot down by the easily portable missile remains the largest obstacle to reopening the airport.

Baghdad International Airport, which was a key focus of fighting during the US invasion of the country, has since been repaired and renovated and is said to be ready for flights.

But so far, only military planes loaded with defensive counter-measures have taken off and landed at the airport, and the planes must steeply ascend and descend to be less vulnerable to a surface-to-air missile.

Getting the airport up and running to civilian or commercial flights is not only of high symbolic value, but essential for rebuilding the country’s economy, doing business there and opening the door for Iraqis to travel.

“It is crucial to commerce, and has a very high symbolic value,” said Hans Weber, an aviation security and safety consultant in San Diego, California. “As long as the airport is not open, it makes it harder to convince people that the situation there has returned to somewhat of a normal state.”

The real value of people being able to travel is essential to the reconstruction of the country and it carries symbolic value, he said.

Richard Aboulafia, and aviation analyst at the Teal Group in Washington, said the shooting down of the Chinook “doesn’t do the airport any favours”.

“It pushes back the expectations in terms of civil aviation,” he said.

Following the war, the US government began soliciting proposals from airlines interested in opening routes to Baghdad, but concerns about the existence of thousands of the portable missiles in the country coupled with the dangerous environment in the areas around Baghdad have thwarted plans for resuming flights.

But the downing of the twin-rotor Chinook, used for transporting soldiers and equipment, is unlikely to have a major impact in the debate over reopening the airport because the criteria are already focused on passenger safety, Weber said.—dpa