Tehran: Iranian officials on Friday slammed the interception of an Iranian passenger plane by a US fighter jet in the skies over Syria as illegal, threatening action against Washington over the incident.
Iran had said that one of its airliners, flying from Tehran to Beirut on Thursday, was harassed by fighter jets, but later landed safely in Lebanon. A US official confirmed that a US jet had passed by the Iranian airliner, but at a safe distance.
According to Iranian state TV, two fighter jets came within a distance of 100 meters (328 feet) of the Iranian Airbus A310. The pilot of Mahan Air Flight 1152 quickly took the aircraft to a lower altitude to avoid a collision, the report said.
The sharp maneuver caused slight injuries among some of the passengers.
However, US Navy Captain Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesman, told The Associated Press that a US F-15 fighter jet conducted a standard visual inspection of the Iranian plane at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) from the airliner.” He said the inspection was meant to ensure the safety of US coalition troops in al-Tanf in Syria as the plane was flying over that area. (AP)
