Depending upon where you are in the world, you may have heard that the U.S. bullied an Iranian passenger plane over Syria causing serious injuries or you may have heard that an Iranian pilot needlessly overacted to a routine U.S. air mission after failing to identify himself on the radio. Wherever the truth lies, we currently are left with many unanswered questions concerning the intercept of Mahan Air 1152.
A Rundown Of What Happened
An American F-15 fighter jet was scrambled to visually verify an Iranian passenger jet approaching a U.S. base near the Syrian-Jordanian border. The Mahan Air Airbus A310 was traveling from Tehran to Beirut, operating a scheduled passenger service flight (flight 1152).
Fearing the approaching American fighter jet was an attack, the Mahan Air pilots descended toward Beirut (14,000 feet in four minutes), causing numerous injuries onboard.
Passenger video reveals what occurred onboard:
Violent interception of Iranian Mahan Air passanger airplane over Syria by US or Israeli F-15. Pilot was forced to drop altitude in order to avoid collision. pic.twitter.com/tBL7px3vgA
— Aldin 🇧🇦 (@aldin_ww) July 23, 2020
Captain Bill Urban, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, said:
“A U.S. F-15 on a routine air mission in the vicinity of the CJTF-OIR At Tanf garrison in Syria conducted a standard visual inspection of a Mahan Air passenger airliner at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters from the airliner this evening. The visual inspection occurred to ensure the safety of coalition personnel at At Tanf garrison.”
Urban added:
“Once the F-15 pilot identified the aircraft as a Mahan Air passenger plane, the F-15 safely opened distance from the aircraft. The professional intercept was conducted in accordance with international standards.”
Iran, meanwhile, first claimed that Israeli fighter jets had “harassed” the Mahan Air pilot, forcing the abrupt descent. When it became clear that it was a single American jet, Iran just transferred blame to the Americans.
Initial ADS-B data regarding a reported incident involving an Iranian airliner today enroute to Beirut. https://t.co/Lh7krY14Sc We are currently processing granular data. pic.twitter.com/38T7fA4J4w
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) July 23, 2020
Mahan Air Intercept: Open Questions Remain
Several questions remain unanswered:
- Was it just fear that prompted the Mahan Air pilot to rapidly descend?
- Why did the Mahan Air pilot not communicate on the radio?
- Was there no other way beyond a visual approach to identify the aircraft?
- 14,000 feet in four minutes is steep, but not exactly rapid – was the problem the initial drop without warning?
- Did injuries occur simply because the flight deck did not warn passengers to buckle up?
On the whole, though, it looks like an overreaction from the Mahan Air pilot.
CONCLUSION
The visual identification of an unresponsive airliner flying through a combat zone is a standard protocol, which the US seemed to follow. The maneuvers of the Mahan Air flight seemed dangerous. Yet there remains several open questions about this incident.
image: Lasse Fuss / Wikimeida Commons
By the time NPR has finished with the story, this will be a precursor to a full-on land invasion.
I think these IR pilots are quite familiar with the occasional F15 in their area.
its not like the we (the US) have a history of shooting down Iranian passenger planes in the middle east…that’s definitely never happened before! Can’t think of any reason the passenger plane pilot might be a bit nervous.
Fair point indeed!
As does Iran, and very recently. If this passenger jet didn’t want to get intercepted, perhaps next time don’t fly over a warzone and a US base. It is to be expected that you would get intercepted. It would be dereliction of duty if the plane wasn’t intercepted. We are not to blame for the poor training and panicking of Iranian pilots.
This is such Bull. The Iranian pilot should loose their license for this. I understand the anxiety they must have had being intercepted, especially with these going bad in the past. But did the pilot think they could outrun or out maneuver a modern fighter jet? Not to mention such drastic action without radio communication could be seen as much more of a threat than continuing on course, speed and altitude.
The only excuse that i can possibly buy is if the Iranian pilot mistook the F-15 for a missile and tried to change altitude to avoid it. But even that sounds a bit fishy since missiles fly so much faster than jets, i’m not sure a civilian radar would pick them up and finally i’m willing to bet that radio warnings were sent out about trying to establish contact and about the fighter interception.
Finally, visual identification really is the only way to confirm what/who an aircraft is. Transponders can be manipulated and radar and even flight tracking will not give you a 100% confirmation of an aircraft like a visual inspection. These kinds of interceptions happen all the time around the world for both civilian and military aircraft. In a region were tensions are high, it should be expected and trained for by air crews.
Lol. What is US army/air force doing over there in the first place? Do they pose a threat to US freedom and democracy? Do they trying to invade american soil? Lol.
Do they have deposits of oil and other natural resources including geo location for transportation between continent?
Oh well… You guys are trained from infancy to defend zealously whatever you guys did in the name of freedom and democracy anyway, no matter how stupid it really is. Lol
Syria does have some oil. They also have training camps for Islamist terrorists, some of whom are American.
Fair point but would those camps exist if we didn’t try to overthrow the Ayatollah, invade Iraq/ Afghanistan for WMDs, etc?