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Iran forces foreign plane to land

DUBAI: Iranian fighter jets forced a foreign aircraft which had violated Iran’s airspace to land on its territory, Iranian new agencies alleged.

According to the semi-official Fars news agency, the foreign plane was a U.S. Falcon and was ferrying military officials. Iranian state-television, however, said the plane was European with no Americans on board.

Iranian television said all those on board had been freed after a day and the plane was permitted to resume its journey. According to Fars, the aircraft was heading for Afghanistan. It had entered Iranian airspace after taking off from Turkey. It flew low to evade radar, but was detected and forced to land following its interception by Iranian jets. The occupants were released after it became evident that their intrusion was unintentional.

The Pentagon denied the incident and said that none of its planes had landed in Iran.

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