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Tehran – The Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced on Friday that it had foiled an attempt to hijack a passenger plane on a domestic flight last night.
“The hijacking targeted a regional commercial aircraft belonging to Iranian Airlines Fokker 100 after it took off from the city of Ahvaz (southwest) and headed for the city of Mashhad (northeast), it said in a statement posted on its website.
He added that the flight made an emergency landing in the central province of Isfahan, without details of the hijackers or the condition of the passengers.
The statement affirms that “the plane was the object of a hijacking attempt around 10:10 pm (18:40 GMT)”, adding that “the passengers of the plane arrived at their destination in full health through an alternative flight. “. The Revolutionary Guard said: “The dimensions of this criminal act are still being investigated.”
According to initial reports, the perpetrator of the hijacking attempt tried to land the plane at the airport of one of the southern Persian Gulf countries after the hijacking, “according to the official Iranian agency IRNA.
The Fokker 100 aircraft was scheduled to take off from the city of Ahwaz to the city of Mashhad at 7:15 p.m. local time (3:45 GMT), according to a website that tracks the movements of aircraft in the airspace.
Iran Airlines has 3 planes in its fleet, each of which is over 30 years old, as Iran is still banned from buying planes due to imposed sanctions.
Iran’s domestic flights carry members of the Revolutionary Guard to counter any attempted attack or kidnapping.
The Revolutionary Guard assumed responsibility for air security in the 1980s, after a series of incidents of aircraft seized by opposition groups during the upheaval that followed the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In September 2000, a gunman who used a fake pistol and a gasoline bomb attempted to seize a Fokker 100 aircraft and force it to go to France and set it on fire, but was arrested, according to the report from the US Federal Aviation Administration. USA
In November 2000, gunmen from 4 families seized a “Yakovlev Yak-40” plane belonging to Iran’s “Ariator” airline and demanded that it be transferred to the United States Air Guard. A report from the Federal Aviation Administration said a flight attendant and five hijackers were injured.
