In an incident that left so many questions unanswered, a pilot refused to take off with a scheduled flight unless passengers paid for the trip's fuel.
Wait ... what? You read that right.
Passengers traveling to Baghdad from Tunisia's Carthage International Airport were left shocked and outraged after the pilot told them he wouldn't fly them anywhere until he received petrol money.
This came after the flight was delayed for a number of hours. At first, people thought this was due to political reasons. Turns out, the delay was due to the fact that there wasn't enough fuel for the aircraft to reach its destination.
The pilot was initially asked to pay $3,000 for the fuel but refused to do so. Instead, he asked the passengers to cover the cost.
An argument ensued between the two parties, sparking protests and riots in the airport. One passenger decided to film the chaos and uploaded the footage online. In the video, the man can be heard complaining about the situation.
"Look at the Iraqi airlines - they put us all in trouble and made us all sit", he explained.
Early reports claimed Tunisian officials had prevented the flight's take off
Initial reports claimed Tunisian authorities barred the flight from taking off because Iraqi airline officials had accumulated unpaid fuel debts.
However, in a statement on the matter, the Tunisian Embassy in Iraq set the record straight. Officials explained that no local officials at the Carthage International Airport detained the Iraqi plane or banned it from flying.
They simply waited on the flight's commander to pay the amount allocated to fuel for this specific flight.
The statement also added that the matter was eventually settled with the Iraqi embassy in Tunisia. The cost of the fuel was paid by Iraqi officials.
