Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 6
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Managing director of Iran's Airport Company Mohammad Ilkhani has revealed details about landing of a chartered aircraft carrying about 100 Americans from the U.S. airbase at Bagram, Afghanistan in Iran's southern city of Bandar Abbas.
Ilkhani said that the provided information about the flight plan of the air craft was false, so Iran asked the plane to land to verify the information, Iran's Fars news agency reported on Sept. 6.
"We asked the plane to make landing in order to ensure that there is no problem with it," the official explained.
The type of plane which entered Iran's air space was different from the earlier declared information, he said, adding "due to inconsistencies in the provided information we asked the pilot to make landing in Bandar Abbas airport."
Reuters quoted a U.S. official saying the plane had failed to update its flight plan after leaving Bagram for Dubai several hours late.
When Iranian civil aviation officials identified the plane, they could not find it in their system because it was supposed to have flown through hours earlier, the official said.
Iranian officials first asked it to turn around and then to land at Bandar Abbas when told it did not have enough fuel to return to Afghanistan, the official said.
Ilkhani said that the Iranian officials reviewed the plane's documents and asked the pilot some questions on the issue.
The incident occurred last night around 19:30 local time (GMT +4:30 hours), Ilkhani said, adding that the air plane left Bandar Abbas for Dubai after the problem was resolved.
The plane belongs to "Fly Dubai" company and was rented by the Afghanistan coalition forces, the western media outlets reported Sept. 5.
"No Iranian jets were scrambled in this situation," said the U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf regarding a statement that the plane had landed in Dubai, which is contrary to some media reports.