Air France launches investigation after plane flew over Iraq during Iranian missile strike on Israel

Shafaq News/ Air France announced on Wednesday that it had opened an internal investigation after one of its planes flew over Iraq on October 1 during an Iranian missile strike on Israel.

Last Tuesday, Iran fired approximately 200 missiles at Israel, marking its second confirmed attack on Israeli territory.

The airline said the plane was en route from Paris to Dubai at the time of the attack, flying through a designated air corridor used by all airlines in southern Iraq. The aircraft left Iraqi airspace 15 minutes later, which remained open to air traffic until 1756 GMT, according to AFP.

"Without waiting for instructions from Iraqi authorities, Air France decided to suspend all flights over Iraqi airspace starting at 1700 GMT," the company stated.

French TV channel TF1 was the first to report on the investigation.

On Monday, Air France and its low-cost subsidiary, Transavia, extended their suspension of flights to Tel Aviv until October 15, and to Beirut until October 26, citing the security situation.

Both airlines, part of the Air France-KLM Group, said that the resumption of operations would depend on ongoing assessments. The flights had initially been suspended until at least October 8.

The decision comes amid rising tensions in the Middle East, where Israel is launching a war against Lebanon and Gaza and killed over 43,000 people, mostly civilians.