Oh shit. U.S warplane forced to land in Iran

US plane 'forced to land in Iran'

A US warplane has been forced to land in Iran after violating Iranian territory, the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency has reported.

It said the Falcon aircraft entered Iranian airspace from Turkey, flying at low altitude to avoid radar.

The report said the group was interrogated and allowed to leave, without saying when the incident happened.


The agency said the plane was detected by Iranian fighter jets, which forced it to land at an undisclosed airport.

Passengers included five senior American generals and three civilians, the report said.

The agency said the group was interrogated at the airport and then allowed to leave after it was realised they had entered unintentionally.

More details to follow
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7657066.stm

Oops Edited to add link.

You can't fit "five senior American generals and three civilians" on one of those. Or am I completely mistaken about what a "Falcon" is supposed to be.

I know Dassault has a line of planes marketed under that name, but I'd hardly consider those to be "warplanes."

But I didn't know the AF had any...maybe it's a CIA bird? Weird.
:shrug:
(I agree, it's not what I'd call a 'warplane' by any stretch)

on edit:

WTF is up with that?

Sid

it was flying under the radar because it was driving on the roads.

You made me laugh.

It was done as a joke but the aircraft mechanics that did it had it certified by the FAA as an experimental aircraft.
I spoke with one of the mechanics that did it and he told me the only problem they had was that the gas tank broke loose on landing. It wasn't designed for flight.

:hi:

Unless it was a B-52.

And now the Pentagon is saying that this whole thing isn't true. Weird.

<snip>
The U-2 Spy Plane Incident

At the height of the "cold war," as critics of the Eisenhower administration complained about the growing "missile gap," the United States secretly gathered data on Soviet missile capabilities through photographs obtained from U-2 reconnaissance plane overflights of the Soviet Union. In May 1960, plans were finalized for a crucial Paris summit conference between western nations and leaders of the Soviet Union with disarmament to be the main focus. Hopes for a successful summit were dashed when on May 1, May Day, an American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Soviet air space. On the first day of the Paris summit, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev stormed out after delivering a condemnation of U.S. spy activities.
<MORE>

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/dl/U2Incident/U2documents.html

First, the 'Falcon' is obviously NOT an F16; no room for passengers. It's probably also NOT the Dassault Falcon; the US Air Force doesn't operate any, nor does the Army Air Transport Service; the Coast Guard has some, but I don't know why five generals would be flying in a Coast Guard plane in the Iran/Iraq area. Nor is it clear why five general officers would be on the same aircraft in the first place; that's generally contrary to procedure (which tends to err on the side of minimising risk; too much potential disruption of theatre command and control in the event of an accident or worse to want to put so much top brass on one plane in potentially hostile territory.

In Baghdad, I think? A bird had two full birds and two command sergeants major on it and it went down with all hands (or whatever the ground forces equivalent of "with all hands" is). After that they put teeth back on the policy of splitting up rank in travel and billeting.

And yeah, I agree something doesn't pass the smell test here. First off, you won't see 1 general, let alone 5, without a fleet of staff, toadies, and hangers on. And 5 generals don't go anywhere without a lot of publicity (these are guys who depend on Congress for their promotions).

first it said the plane was low flying to avoid radar, then said it was an unintentional violation of airspace.

That doesn't make sense.

Did the BBC's translators have the day off or something?

upon realizing they were being set up.

they used to KNOW how to hold hostages.

Just because the iranian news agency said it was.

Brings back memories of baghdad bob...

a Military Jet but a Jet operated by some business.

I hope someone got a screen capture of that little detail...before the beeb scrubbed it.

curiouser & curiouser

:eyes:

Atul Aneja

DUBAI: Iranian fighter jets forced a foreign aircraft which had violatedthe country’s airspace to land on its territory, new agencies alleged. According to the semi-official Fars news agency, the foreign plane was aU.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 andthe plane was permitted to resume its journey. According to Fars, theaircraft was heading for Afghanistan ... http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200810072215.htm

I read on CNN that this is a Dasault Falcon - a corporate business jet full of Hungarian humanitarian workers not an F-16.