No injuries were reported as a celebratory bullet fired into the side of the passenger plane as it landed, having arrived from Jordan.
Celebratory gunfire is a common practice in Lebanon, a country where gun ownership is common.
No injuries were reported as a celebratory bullet fired into the side of the passenger plane as it landed
The reason for this celebratory gunfire is not clear, but the shot came from the neighbouring areas of the Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport.
The MEA Chairman Mohamad El-Hout confirmed that there were no injuries.
Mr El-Hout said that seven to eight planes are hit by the stray celebratory bullets from local areas surrounding the airport. However, he said that this was the first time that a bullet had fired into a plane as it was moving.
Following the incident, the airline chairman called for the practice of celebratory gunfire to stop.
Mr El-Hout said: 'These practices of shooting in the air in Lebanon must be stopped ... it is a source of danger to air traffic and the airport.'
Horrifying images show how close the gunfire was to the passengers as it hit the fuselage, and thankfully only causing material damage.
Lebanese lawmaker Paula Yacoubian was on the flight and shared images on her Twitter page appearing to show a hole in the fuselage of the plane.
She said she was sitting in seat 2F when the incident occurred 'right above my head'.
Ms Yacoubian Tweeted following the incident and said: 'Uncontrolled weapons and stray bullets must be put to an end.'
This is not the first time that celebratory gunfire has gone awry in Lebanon.
A Syrian woman was killed in eastern Lebanon after she was shot by celebratory gunfire during New Year's Eve celebrations at the end of 2020.
A stray bullet from the gunfire fell and wounded her in the head. She later died.
Lebanese international footballer Mohamed Atwi also died in September 2020 after being killed in another incident.
Gunfire was let off after a funeral. One of the bullets fell back down to the ground and killed the man as he walked through a street in Beirut.
The Lebanese authorities have long warned of the dangers of the tradition but have struggled to stamp down of the practice.
let's look at that photo for a minute.
and let's read this part again: given the interior hole is larger than the exterior hole it likely was from an external projectile - if you were standing in the aisle looking aft the hole would be roughly at your 10 to 11 o'clock (vertically)...so it's not the "side" but more closer to the top.
was the plane in steep bank ? nah, probably not, which means the projectile was on the downward portion of its parabolic trajectory.
lots of daylight coming through that hole, with a roughly fist sized chunk of missing insulation.
so what calibre of "common gun" round would travel in a parabolic trajectory to punch a hole in the aircraft's aluminum skin at approach altitude ?
pistol calibre ? nope.
rifle - 7.62 or 5.45 ? iffy iffy iffy, and it'd be a teenie entry hole even if it was tumbling.
how about a kord 12.7 ? mmmm hmmm yup.
now let's go back to the author's remark : "...a country where gun ownership is common."
my point here is that this article's purpose is to scare the crap out of normal people by inferring that people should not own guns because look what can happen...it almost brought down a plane.
utter horse poop.
what the author doesn't say, is that the hole is huge, and was not created by a round from a probable lebanese militia rifle calibre like the AKM or AK, but was likely the result of a heavy machine gun with 12.7mm rounds - which is definitely not a "common gun".
conclusion: in all likely hood the motherweffers fund the Daily Mail's pseudo journalists.