September 12-14
The Iranian government forced a plane carrying US military contractors to land in Bandar Abbas Friday, complaining that the aircraft’s paperwork was not in order.
US officials said nothing untoward happened and the plane was allowed to proceed more than eight hours later.
The aircraft belonged to FlyDubai, which is a subsidiary of Emirates Airlines, a company owned by the government of Dubai. It was flying from Bagram Air Base, the US military headquarters in Afghanistan, to Dubai carrying contractors working for the NATO forces in Afghanistan. Jassem Jaderi, governor general of Hormuzgan province, said the flight carried 140 passengers, of whom 110 were Americans.
FlyDubai frequently flies through Iranian airspace so the airline was no stranger to Iranian air controllers. Its Arab crew had filed a flight plan seeking flying rights over Iran, which were granted.
US officials said the plane took off about three hours late, and that appears to be what the Iranian air traffic controllers focused on. The FlyDubai crew had not filed an amended flight plan after the delay.
US officials said the Iranians first told the plane to return to Afghanistan, but the pilot said he did not have enough fuel to do that. Iran then ordered him to land at Bandar Abbas.
The Washington Post reported that Iran sent up fighter planes to force the FlyDubai plane to land. But the US State Department said that was false.
Countries have the right to tell any plane in the air to land for any reason.
However, a three-hour delay is routinely handled by an exchange of radio messages in the air and not by an order to land.
The Islamic Republic knew from the flight plan that the plane had originated at the US air base at Bagram and may have wanted to see who or what was on board. One commentator speculated, “If you combine curiosity about what was on the plane with the latent desire to ping the Americans, then it was very logical that they ordered the plane to land.”
Iran said it offered the passengers the facilities of the transit lounge at Bandar Abbas, but that everyone aboard the plane decided to stay aboard.
They were on the ground a total of 8 1/4 hours, a rather long time just to amend a flight plan to reflect a three-hour takeoff delay. The plane was actually cleared to leave earlier, but by then the pilot’s allowed duty time had expired and another crew had to be flown in first from Dubai.
The flight was chartered by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is the umbrella group for most troops from NATO countries operating in Afghanistan. Some, but not all, US troops in Afghanistan are part of ISAF.
The Mehr news agency quoted Jaderi, the governor general of Hormuzgan, as saying the plane’s crew had filed “false information” on its flight plan, saying the plane was listed as an Airbus but turned out to be a Boeing. But US officials said the only problem was that the flight had been delayed and the flight plan not updated. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dismissed the matter as “a bureaucratic issue.”
Mohammad-Ali Ilkhani, head of the Iranian Airports Organization, said, “We interviewed the pilot and verified the flight documents. The pilot acknowledged there had been errors. He was then allowed to leave.”
No one in Iran made an issue of the flight. With one exception, the usually talkative US bashers from the Majlis were silent.
However, one deputy, Man-sur Haqiqatpur, said, “Americans should know that Iran strongly defends its territory whether land, sea or air. They should observe international measures in this regard. Otherwise, they will face such an attitude.” He claimed the plane was ordered to land to pay expenses, but FlyDubai pays overflight fees through an established channel and doesn’t land to pay them.
Iran’s state news agency played down the incident, even reporting that the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Iran had “allowed the plane to make an emergency landing at Bandar Abbas airport.”
None of the passengers or crew from the plane has spoken with the media since the much-delayed flight arrived in Dubai Saturday.
