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Coalition Military Charter Plane Lands Unexpectedly in Iran Jet Carrying Contractors Is Ordered To Land in Iran
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — A plane chartered by an American-led military coalition that was flying through Iranian airspace landed unexpectedly in Iran on Friday, but the Obama administration said it was a bureaucratic issue that should be settled soon and was not a larger political incident between two countries with a history of hostility. WASHINGTON — A charter airplane carrying American military contractors through Iranian airspace was instructed to land in Iran on Friday, but the United States attributed the episode to an easily corrected bureaucratic issue and not a larger political incident between two countries with a long history of hostility.
“This is nothing to get alarmed over,” said an administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss a delicate diplomatic situation. “This is a bureaucratic problem with the flight plan, and it’s going to be resolved shortly. This is not a political statement.” The airplane, chartered by the international military coalition in Afghanistan, was flying from Bagram Air Base north of Kabul to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates when it ran into trouble with Iranian air traffic controllers over its flight plan.
The plane, a civilian Fly Dubai aircraft chartered by the International Security Assistance Force that operates in Afghanistan, was flying from Bagram Air Base north of Kabul to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates when it was rerouted to the coastal Iranian city of Bandar Abbas. The plane was rerouted to the coastal Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, where it landed pending a resolution of the issue.
American officials said it was not forced down by the Iranian military, but it is unclear whether it was escorted by Iranian warplanes. “This is nothing to get alarmed over,” said an Obama administration official, who like other American officials insisted on anonymity to discuss a potentially delicate diplomatic situation. “This is a bureaucratic problem with the flight plan, and it’s going to be resolved shortly. This is not a political statement.”
“The issue appears to have been resolved,” an administration official said late Friday afternoon, “and hopefully the plane will be able to take off soon.” The administration denied initial media reports that Iranian jets had forced down the plane. “It was all done on the radio,” a senior Pentagon official said. “It was just a bad flight plan.”
A Middle Eastern official said another problem was that the flight’s departure was delayed four to five hours, so it appeared on the Iranian air traffic control at an unexpected time.
A second aircraft sent on Friday to pick up the passengers took them on to Dubai, the official said.
The effort to avoid a larger international dispute over the flight underscored the shift in Iranian-American relations in recent months.
In the past, even an honest misunderstanding might have provoked a series of harsh exchanges and escalated into a standoff.
But with the two nations negotiating a deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions, neither evidently wanted such a distraction.
“It’s a cautious decision by both sides to make sure things like this don’t get out of hand,” said Vali Nasr, a former Obama administration official who is now dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. The plane chartered from Fly Dubai by the International Security Assistance Force, was carrying about 140 passengers, 100 of them American.
The incident was first reported by The Washington Post.The incident was first reported by The Washington Post.