On 22 November 2003, shortly after takeoff from Baghdad, Iraq, an Airbus A300B2-200F cargo plane, registered OO-DLL and owned by the Belgian division of European Air Transport (doing business as DHL Express), was struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile while on a scheduled flight to Muharraq, Bahrain.

[2] Returning to Baghdad, the three-man crew made an injury-free landing of the seriously damaged A300, using differential engine thrust as the only pilot input.

[4] Sara Daniel, a French weekly newsmagazine journalist, claimed receipt, from an unknown source, of a video that showed Iraqi insurgents (belonging to IAI), faces concealed, firing a missile at the EAT A300.

The plane was converted into cargo configuration in March 1999, and was delivered to the Belgian division of European Air Transport, under whom it operated as DHL, on 22 September 2000.

[8] The plane had an experienced crew of three - two Belgians, 38-year-old Captain Éric Gennotte and 29-year-old First Officer Steeve Michielsen, and a Scotsman, 54-year-old flight engineer Mario Rofail.

Flight engineer Mario Rofail executed a gravity drop to extend the landing gear, a procedure normally accomplished with hydraulic power.

Early deployment of the gear was critical to a safe outcome because increased drag helped reduce speed and stabilize the aircraft.

The aircraft ran through rough, soft ground, throwing up a plume of sand and dragging a razor-wire barrier, and halted after about 3,300 ft (1,000 m).

[13] In May 2006, Captain Éric Genotte, together with Armand Jacob, an Airbus experimental test pilot, gave a presentation to the Toulouse branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society titled "Landing an A300 Successfully Without Flight Controls".