Iranian fighters forced aircraft with Belarusian military delegation to land (Updated)
24- 22.10.2008, 17:14
Today at 03.12 a.m. fighters of the Air Forces of Iran were alerted after a Belarusian aircraft intruded the air over this country.
The plane ignored the order of the Air Defense Centre, so Iranian planes made Belarusian pilots land, Russian “Izvestiya” writes. It is not informed what the Belarusian plane was doing in Iran, the Russian newspaper writes with a reference to Iranian media.
First the Defence Ministry of Belarus stated that a Belarusian aircraft couldn’t be there.
“How do you imagine that?! Belarus does not border on Iran. Imagine that to reach the Iranian border, the Belarusian fighter is to cross so many other borders. At the moment all Belarusian fighters are at the base airfields,” the spokesperson of the Belarusian Defence Ministry Vyachaslau Ramenchyk said in an interview to the European radio for Belarus.
The director of the Aviation department of the Transport Ministry of Belarus Vadzim Melnik has given a task to study the situation with the Belarusian aircraft in Iran.
“If it was some Belarusian flight, it wasn’t a civil aircraft, as there were no flights there. That could be air forces. They are not subordinate to us. It could be some private firm. They could have rented an aircraft. The only thing is that we are giving permission for a flight. I can tell you once again that there haven’t been any civil flights there recently, and there won’t be in the near future either,” Kostsin said.
Belarusian Foreign Ministry: Belarusian military delegation was in the aircraft detained by Iranians
In the evening the Foreign Ministry of Belarus confirmed the reports of Iranian mass media that Iranian fighters stopped a Belarusian aircraft.
The Foreign Ministry informs that on October 21 overnight a plane IL-79 of the Defence Ministry of Belarus made an unplanned landing in airport Busher on demand of Iranian authorities. A Belarusian military delegation was on board. It was on its way to Doha (Qatar) for participation in the debriefing of the international exercise” Ferocious Falcon”.
The rout of the aircraft’s flight had been agreed upon by the Iranian side beforehand in line with the international practice, Foreign Ministry states.
On October 22 in the morning the aircraft left Busher for Doha.
During settling the situation on October 22 Iranian Ambassador to Belarus Seyyed Abdollah Hosseini was invited to the Foreign Ministry of Belarus.
The Iranian side expressed regret over the events, via the military institutions as well, and confirmed the intention to carry out a thorough analysis of the details of the incident caused by an administrative confusion, the report of the Foreign Ministry states.
