Kuwait International Airport - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

• A Douglas DC-6 belonging to Yemen Airlines was hijacked by one person on 25 August 1973 during a flight from Taiz to Asmara. After making a refueling stop in Djibouti, the aircraft was taken to Kuwait where the hijacker surrendered.
• On 17 December 1973, a terrorist attack on Rome's Fiumicino airport ended by the terrorists hijacking a Lufthansa Boeing 737-100 that was preparing to depart to Munich. The aircraft was taken to Kuwait where the hijackers surrendered one day later.
• A Middle East Airlines Boeing 707 was hijacked by one person during a flight from Beirut to Baghdad on 5 June 1977. The ordeal ended in Kuwait by storming the aircraft and arresting the hijacker.
• Two hijackers demanding money surrendered after hijacking a Kuwait Airways Boeing 737-200 during a flight from Beirut on 24 July 1980.
• On 2 August 1990, British Airways Flight 149 carrying 349 passengers landed at Kuwait International Airport just four hours after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, leading to the capture of the passengers and crew. The Boeing 747-100 aircraft was looted by the Iraqis and destroyed. All passengers and crew were reported safe. A McDonnell Douglas DC-9 belonging to the Kuwait Air Force was also destroyed in the airport. It is believed that during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait many of the planes belonging to Kuwait Airways were stolen from the airport and stored in different locations in Iraq, some of which were later destroyed by allied bombings in 1991.
• A USMC McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II crash-landed at Kuwait International Airport on 25 February 1991 after being hit by ground fire during the Kuwait Liberation War.
• On 10 December 1999, three US military personnel died when a USAF Lockheed C-130 Hercules made a hard emergency landing at Kuwait International Airport after sustaining damage from landing short of the runway at nearby Jaber al-Ahmad Airbase.