MIAMI — All U.S. airlines and other commercial operators have been banned from flying into Haiti for at least 30 days, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday.
The announcements came as a third U.S. carrier, American Airlines, confirmed on Tuesday that one of its aircraft had also been hit by gunfire on Monday while traveling over Haitian airspace.
Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways on Monday confirmed separately that their aircraft had sustained gunshots.
American has canceled all flights to Haiti until February.
American Airlines spokeswoman Amanda Maldonado said the gunfire that hit Flight 819 was discovered in Miami after the plane landed safely at Miami International Airport on Monday from Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport.
“Out of an abundance of caution, a post-flight inspection was completed, indicating the exterior of the aircraft had been impacted by a bullet,” she said. “We are working closely with all relevant authorities to investigate this incident.”
The airline’s daily service between Miami and Port-au-Prince has been suspended through February 12, she said.
On Monday Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways flights were also hit by rounds over Port-au-Prince airspace. The Spirit flight was a mile east of Toussaint Louverture International Airport when it was fired on, and the JetBlue fight had just taken off and was bound for New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. No passengers were injured, the airlines said, but a spokesperson for Spirit said that a flight attendant sustained minor injuries.
In response to the incident, JetBlue announced cancellation of flights until Dec. 2, while American Airlines said flights would be canceled until Thursday. Spirit, which canceled flights out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport into both Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien said flights were canceled pending an investigation of the shooting.
The FAA issued the Notice to Airmen, known as a NOTAM, prohibiting U.S. civil aviation operations in the territory and airspace of Haiti below 10,000 feet after initially issuing the prohibition until Monday.
The notice applies to all operators of civil aircraft registered in the U.S except when the operator of such an aircraft is a foreign air carrier. Exceptions are made for emergencies and flights authorized by the U.S. government or agency with approval of the FAA.
Haitian-owned Sunrise Airways says neither the ban nor Monday’s shootings have affected its flights. The airline, which flies to several Caribbean destinations, operates flights between Miami International Airport and Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien.
This marks the second time this year air travel in and out of Haiti has been disrupted by the country’s escalating gang violence. After gangs launched coordinated attacks in late February to force the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry the country’s airports were closed for nearly three months.
Kesner Pharel, a Port-au-Prince economist, said that between the closure of the airport and the main seaport — which recently stopped accepting cargo ships after two crew members were kidnapped and a sniper’s bullet injured a dock worker — Haiti will see even more difficult days ahead.
“Fewer people coming in the country mean less money flowing through the economy,” he said, which will contribute to “extreme poverty and misery.”
Haitian leaders have not said anything about the shootings, which occurred during a day in which police and gangs were engaged in several firefights, and after members of a gang coalition threatened violence after the ruling presidential council ousted Prime Minister Garry Conille and tapped businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, to replace him.
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader on Monday called the shooting at the airplanes an act of terrorism.
Haiti has been on the U.S. State Department’s highest travel warning, Level 4, even before the 2021 assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moise, plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and ramped-up violence by armed gangs.
By JACQUELINE CHARLES/Miami Herald