A commercial aircraft chartered by the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan for a flight to the Persian Gulf city of Dubai was re-routed to Iran on Friday, ostensibly because of a commix-up over its flight plan, U.S. officials verbally expressed.
The plane was sanctioned to depart after spending several hours on the ground in southern Iran. The State Department later substantiated that it had landed in Dubai.
"We appreciate the efforts of all parties to avail the passengers get safely to their destination," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf verbally expressed in a verbalization. She described the quandary as a "bureaucratic issue" with the plane's flight plan.
The plane was flying from Bagram airfield north of Kabul to Dubai. The mundane flight path goes through Iranian airspace.
Iranians radioed the plane's crew to verbally express they did not have the felicitous paperwork and to return to Bagram, a U.S. official verbally expressed. The pilots verbalized they did not have enough fuel to return so the Iranian ascendant entities authoritatively mandated them to land in Iran.
The plane landed at Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, a second U.S. official verbally expressed. The officials were not sanctioned to be designated and verbalized on condition of anonymity.
