TEHRAN – Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Friday that authorities had stopped the attempted hijacking of a passenger jet on Thursday night.
The alleged hijacking targeted a regional Iran Air Fokker 100 commercial jet that was flying from the city of Ahvaz to the northwest of the city of Mashhad, the Guard said on his website.
The Guard’s announcement on Friday did not identify the hijacker, saying only that he intended to divert the flight to the “southern coast of the Persian Gulf”. That description would include the countries of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, three nations that have long been suspicious of Iran’s intentions in the region.
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According to the report, the Iran 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 immediately clear whether the alleged hijacker was armed or faced criminal charges.
A Fokker 100 was scheduled to take off from Ahvaz to Mashhad at 7:15 pm on Thursday, according to the aircraft tracking website FlightRadar24.com. Iran Air has three aircraft in its fleet, each about 30 years old, as Iran remains barred from selling international aircraft due to sanctions.
Iranian domestic flights are reportedly carrying armed aeronautical agents on board to prevent any attempted attack or hijacking. The last such attempt took place in 2000.
