Air France said on Wednesday it had opened an internal investigation after one of its planes flew over Iraq on Oct. 1 during an Iranian missile attack on Israel.

The company said flight AF662 from Paris to Dubai was travelling at the time of the attack through a special corridor used by all airlines in southern Iraq and fifteen minutes later it left the country's air space, which was not closed to airplane traffic until 1756 GMT.

"Without waiting for instructions from the Iraqi authorities, Air France has decided to suspend overflight of the country's airspace by its aircraft from 1700 GMT," the airline said.

"An internal investigation has been launched into this event," it added.

Air France also said that another flight returned to Paris, while a third, from Singapore to Paris, made an additional stop in Delhi to get more fuel to take a longer route.

The story was first reported by TV channel TF1 Info.