After two American commercial airplanes, one from Spirit Airlines and the other from JetBlue, were struck by gunfire on Monday while operating at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, officials from the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a temporary ban on all flights from the United States to Haiti.
The FAA's ban lasts for 30 days and prohibits planes from flying below 10,000 feet over the island nation, Local 10 News reports.
The flights affected by the gunfire were Spirit Airlines flight 951, which was traveling to the Haitian capital from Fort Lauderdale. It had to make an emergency landing in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic.
A JetBlue flight that departed from Haiti and landed at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport was also hit by the projectiles.
In a statement, Spirit Airlines confirmed that the inspection of the aircraft revealed damage consistent with bullet impacts.
Despite the pilot's swift maneuver to take the plane out of the area, a flight attendant was hit by gunfire, although it was reported that her injuries were minor.
Local 10 recalls that this event occurs amid the rising violence in Haiti.
On Tuesday, a strong police presence was reported in Port-au-Prince, with armed personnel in armored vehicles outside the airport, where they inspected the trucks used for public transport passing by.
Furthermore, the schools remained closed, as did the banks and government offices. The streets, where just a day earlier gangs and police had engaged in a fierce shootout, were disturbingly empty, with only a few vehicles passing by.
In the country, the crisis of governance is palpable. A few days ago, a transition council tasked with restoring democratic order in Haiti, which has not held elections since 2016, decided to dismiss the country's interim Prime Minister, Garry Conille, who often disagreed with the council during his six months in office.
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