Iranian officials' plane forced to land at Ataturk International
Güncelleme Tarihi:
An official Iranian government airplane was forced to land yesterday night at Ataturk Airport when it became clear that the plane had not received official permission to fly over Turkish airspace. The plane was carrying the Iranian Minister of Industry, Ali Riza Tahmsebi, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister Muhammed Riza Bagheri, along with a number of high ranked Iranian officials.
Following the orders to land, the Turkish Ambassador to Tehran, Husnu Gurcan Turkoglu, was reportedly called into the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran for explanations. The Iranian plane waited on the ground for 8 hours at Ataturk International Airport before receiving permission to leave for Tehran, which it finally did in the late morning.
According to sources, the Iranian plane, which was carrying a total of 93 passengers, including 40 Iranian press members, had stopped in Dakar, Senegal to refuel, and had then flown over Tunusia, Algeria, and Italy to get to Turkish airspace. When in Turkish airspace, it was asked to identify itself by the control towers at Ataturk airport, but did not comply.
It was then told by Turkish officials to make an urgent landing. The official reason listed on air traffic reports for the urgent landning of the Iranian airplane remained, as of yesterday, fuel refilling.