IRGC Foils Hijacking Attempt on Domestic Flight

Date: 05 March 2021 - 21:29

News ID: ۸۸۲۵۸

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said Friday that its security forces had thwarted an attempted hijacking of a passenger jet on Thursday night.
The hijacking targeted an Iran Air Fokker 100 regional commercial jet heading from the southwestern city of Ahvaz to the northwestern city of Mashhad, the IRGC said on its website.
"The noble and heroic nation of the Islamic Iran is informed that with the grace of God, the conspiracy to hijack a Fokker 100 aircraft belonging to Iran Air … which had taken off from Ahvaz airport to the holy city of Mashhad at 22:10 hours Thursday night was neutralized with the vigilance of the IRGC’s flight security team,” it said in a statement.
The hijacker sought to divert the flight to an airport in the southern littoral states of the Persian Gulf, the IRGC said. That description would include the countries of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The flight, it said, made an emergency landing in the central city of Isfahan where the hijacker was arrested.
The statement said all passengers were safe and traveled to their destination on an alternative flight. The IRGC said the "dimensions and angles of the conspiracy” are being investigation.
A Fokker 100 was scheduled to take off from Ahvaz for Mashhad at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, according to the plane-tracking website FlightRadar24.com. Iran Air has three of the aircraft in its fleet, each around 30 years old as Iran remains locked out of international aircraft sales due to sanctions.
Iranian domestic flights carry armed air marshals aboard them to disrupt any attempted attack or hijacking. The last such attempt happened in 2000.