Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Says Passenger Interrupted by Airplane Hijacking

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said on Friday that officials interrupted an attempt to fly the night before the hijacking of a passenger plane, although it did offer some details on what happened.

The guard said on its website that the hijacking targeted 100 regional commercial jets from Iran’s southwestern city of Ahwaz to the northwestern city of Mashhad.

The guard’s announcement on Friday did not identify the hijacker, only that the hijacker sought to fly to the “southern edges of the Persian Gulf”. That description will include countries in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have long suspected Iran’s intentions over a wide area.

It said that Iran’s air flight made an emergency landing in the city of Isfahan in central Iran, and no one was injured in the incident. It was not clear whether the alleged kidnappers were armed or facing criminal charges.

According to the flight-tracking website FlightRadar / 2010, a Fokker 100 was flown from Ahwad to Mushad at 7:15 pm on Thursday evening. Iran Air has three aircraft in its fleet, each 30 years old as Iran remains out of international aircraft sales due to restrictions.

Iranian domestic flights are reportedly carried by guard-armed air marshals who board them to prevent any attack or hijacking. The guards took command of aviation security in the 1980s after Iranian opposition groups seized unrest in the country following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The last two such attempts took place in 2000. In September 2000, a man armed with a fake pistol and gasoline bomb sought to seize the Iran Air Fokor 100, which could fly to France. According to a report by the US Federal Aviation Administration, he opened fire and was later taken into custody.

In November 2000, armed men of four families seized a Yakovale YAK-40 aircraft flown by Iranian Ariatur Airlines, thwarting the demand to fly US Guard air marshals, though shooting one of them Was given and stabbed each other. The FAA report states that one flight attendant and five hijackers were also injured.