Officials discount report that U.S. jet forced to land in Iran
Pentagon spokespeople say they have no knowledge of the incident. An Iranian official says a news service misinterpreted a routine event involving a non-U.S. airplane on a humanitarian mission.
TEHRAN -- Iranian and U.S. officials today quickly discounted a news report that Iranian warplanes forced an American aircraft to land after it violated Iran's airspace in recent days.
The Fars News Agency, in a report published today, said an American plane carrying five high-ranking U.S. military officials and three nonmilitary personnel was forced to land at an unidentified airport by Iranian fighter jets two days ago after crossing into Iranian territory from Turkey without permission.
The report, which has been rejected by U.S. officials, said that the Americans included five "high-ranking generals" aboard a Falcon, a small jet made by the French firm Dassault and typically used by business executives.
They were released and allowed to head to their destination in Afghanistan after they were interrogated and determined to have crossed into Iran's airspace unintentionally, according to the report.
U.S. military spokespersons in Washington and the Middle East told news agencies they had no knowledge of the incident.
"All aircraft in the region are accounted for, and we have no reports of any aircraft landing in Iran," said Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder in Washington, according to Reuters.
A ranking Iranian official today rejected the report as a badly mangled account of a routine incident involving a non-U.S. airplane on a humanitarian mission.
"It was not an American plane," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It was a medical rescue plane."
The plane had given the air traffic controllers the wrong codes and was forced to land, before it was quickly allowed to resume a relief mission to Afghanistan, the official said.
Al Alam, Iran's Arab-language television channel, quoted an Iranian military official as saying the plane belonged to a European relief agency and had no American military personnel on board.
daragahi@latimes.com
Special correspondent Mostaghim reported from Tehran and Times staff writer Daragahi from Beirut.
