Aircraft seized at Iraq's Umm Qasr was legally imported for university

Shafaq News- Najaf

The training aircraft seized by Iraq's Border Ports Commission at Umm Qasr Port in Basra Province had been legally imported from Canada for use at a local technical university, a Najaf provincial official said Saturday, contradicting the commission's earlier characterization of the aircraft as smuggled goods.

Iraq's Border Ports Commission announced Friday that it had seized the training aircraft found inside a shipping container at Umm Qasr Port, “as part of a broader anti-smuggling operation at the port,” citing its presence at the facility without the owner coming forward to complete the required legal procedures.

The official told Shafaq News that Najaf's provincial government had contracted to purchase the aircraft for the aviation engineering department of the Technical Engineering College at Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, with the stated purpose of student training. He put the purchase price at 350 million Iraqi dinars (about $267K), adding that the aircraft had been held at the port for five months due to procedural difficulties in completing the clearance process.

The official also raised a separate concern about the authorities' handling of the aircraft during the seizure operation, when the commission had released the preservative gas used to protect the aircraft during transport, a step he warned could expose it to damage and deterioration.