By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 14:49 EST, 6 March 2014 | UPDATED: 17:55 EST, 6 March 2014 A passenger plane flying from Lebanon to Iraq was forced to turn back after the Iraqi transport minister's son missed the flight and phoned Baghdad to stop the aircraft from landing, a spokesman for the airline said. Marwan Salha, acting chairman of Middle East Airlines said the flight, scheduled to leave at 12.40pm, had been delayed for six minutes while MEA staff looked for Mahdi al-Amiri, son of Hadi al-Amiri, and his friend in the business lounge. 'We made the necessary announcements and the last calls,' he said. 'The plane took off but one of the passengers turned out to be the son of the minister of Iraq.'
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Flight delayed while staff looked for Mahdi al-Amiri son of Hadi al-Amiri
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He was reportedly furious to find the plane had taken off without him
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20 minutes later Baghdad airport called to deny it clearance to land
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Plane was forced to return to Beirut where the passengers disembarked
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Iraq transport ministry denied al-Amiri was booked on the flight
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It claims the plane had been turned around due to airport cleaning
The plane then returned to @placeholder and the passengers disembarked.