A Cargolux Boeing 747-400 has been grounded today after maintenance staff detected a small hole in the fuselage during a scheduled A-check. The aircraft was operating a charter flight on 4 July from Luxembourg to Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Accra (Ghana) prior to arriving in Abuja (Nigeria), from where it returned to Luxembourg yesterday. The hole was found in an unpressurized area on the left side near the rear of the plane and did not endanger the safety of the crew at any time.

Cargolux has filed a police report and informed the relevant aviation authority (Direction de l’aviation civile, Luxembourg - DACL) of the incident. The Forensic Division of the Luxembourg police is investigating the incident.

It has been established that the hole was caused by a bullet. There is no evidence that the aircraft was targeted, but that cannot be ruled out.